Machu Picchu (“old mountain” in Quechua) was both a centre of worship and astronomic observatory as well as the private retreat of the family of Inca ruler Pachacutec. The city has 2 main areas: the agriculture zone (terraces, food warehouses) and the urban zone (temples, squares and royal tombs). (www.visitperu.com)
Machu Picchu is supposed to be a spiritual place but unlike Choquequirao's llama wall, I really did not feel anything "spiritual' at all. Maybe this is because Machu Picchu was overrun by tourists. To me, it is at best a very interesting archaeology site.
When we arrived at Machu Picchu, it was drizzling and the Inca city was below the clouds, and we could not see anything below us:
Needless to say, I was disappointed and very worried that the clouds would not go away. Eventually, we did have a good aerial view of the lost city:
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| Left: Waynapicchu, Centre: The urban zone, Right: Terraces from the rural zone |
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| Left: Montaña Machu Picchu |
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| Chakana (Inca Cross) |
The most amazing thing of all is probably how the stone masons put the whole city together with stones of different sizes and shapes. One of the stones even have 32 sides!
Buddy and I walked ascended Waynapicchu, the highest mountain (2693m) closest to the city. From this height, some say that the city is shaped like a condor:
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| View from Waynapicchu |
From Waynapicchu, we made a detour to the Great Cave, where there was more of the ancient city hidden. |
| Great Cave |
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| Wild hen |
As we had to leave for Cuzco in the afternoon, we had to give Montaña Machu Picchu and Inti Punku and Inca Bridge a miss.
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