Machu Picchu

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Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu, the most famous Inca settlement. A royal estate of the emperor Inca Pachacuti, Machu Picchu lies about fifty-four miles northwest of the city of Cuzco at approximately 9,000 feet above sea level, in the cloud forest of the rugged montaña region on the eastern watershed of the Peruvian Andes. Machu Picchu is believed to have been abandoned at the time of the Spanish Conquest and was never found by the conquistadores. It lay in obscurity until Hiram Bingham's 1911 expedition in search of the last Inca capital, Vilcabamba. His explorations were publicized by the National Geographic Society, and Machu Picchu became famous as the "Lost City of the Incas."

In fact Machu Picchu was neither lost nor a city. Bingham found local farmers living there when he arrived, and the site was known to the local people. Agustín Lizárraga, a landowner from Cuzco, seems to have been the first outsider to visit the site perhaps more than once between 1894 and 1902. Bingham was the first, however, to clear the site extensively and to recognize it as a major Inca monument. The function of Machu Picchu has long been debated. Bingham believed it to be the last capital of Vilcabamba, the Inca rump state established after the Conquest. Recent research, however, indicates that the site was not a city but an estate of the emperor Pachacuti. Machu Picchu's importance, aside from its beauty and aesthetic qualities, lies in the fact that the Spanish never discovered it. It is therefore one of only a very few examples of an imperial Inca installation that was not altered or affected by the European invasion. It recently has become an obligatory stop for North American and European tourists, although most Peruvians can not afford the airfare to Cuzco and the subsequent train fare to Aguas Calientes, the town from which the bus takes sightseers to the summit.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sources on Machu Picchu include Hiram Bingham, Machu Picchu, a Citadel of the Incas (1930) and Lost City of the Incas (1948); Paul Fejos, Archaeological Explorations in the Cordillera Vilcabamba, Southeastern Peru (1944); John Hemming, Machu Picchu (1981); and Johan Reinhard, Machu Picchu the Sacred Center (1991).

Additional Bibliography

Burger, Richard L., and Lucy C. Salazar, eds. Machu Picchu: Unveiling the Mystery of the Incas. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004.

Cuba Gutiérrez, Cosme D. Machupicchu en la historia de los Inkas. Perú: s.n., 2005.

Sánchez Macedo, Marino Orlando. De las sacerdotisas, brujas y adivinas de Machu Picchu. Lima: M. O. Sánchez Macedo, 1989.

Wright, Kenneth R., Alfredo Valencia Zegarra, et al. Machu Picchu: A Civil Engineering Marvel. Reston, VA: American Society of Civil Engineers, 2000.

Gordon F. McEwan

Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture