Machu Picchu
often referred to as “The Lost City of the Incas”, is one of the most
familiar symbols of the old Inca Empire in Peru. This magical city that
is full of peace and mystical solemnity has been a witness to the
remarkable life of the Inca people who are usually credited for
introducing a civilised society and sophisticated culture to South
America. Nowadays Machu Picchu is one of the seven wonders of the world.
Machu
Picchu stands 2,430 m above sea-level, in the middle of a tropical
mountain forest, in an extraordinarily beautiful setting. It was
probably the most amazing urban creation of the Inca Empire at its
height; its giant walls, terraces and ramps seem as if they have been
cut naturally in the continuous rock escarpments. The natural setting,
on the eastern slopes of the Andes, encompasses the upper Amazon basin
with its rich diversity of flora and fauna.
Machu
Picchu covers 32,500 ha in some of the scenically most attractive
mountainous territory of the Peruvian Andes. As the last stronghold of
the Incas and of superb architectural and archaeological importance,
Machu Picchu is one of the most important cultural sites in Latin
America; the stonework of the site remains as one of the world’s great
examples of the use of a natural raw material to provide outstanding
architecture which is totally appropriate to the surroundings. The
surrounding valleys have been cultivated continuously for well over
1,000 years, providing one of the world’s greatest examples of a
productive man-land relationship; the people living around Machu Picchu
continue a way of life which closely resembles that of their Inca
ancestors, being based on potatoes, maize and llamas. Machu Picchu also
provides a secure habitat for several endangered species, notably the
spectacled bear, one of the most interesting species in the area. Others
animals include: dwarf brocket, the otter, long-tailed weasel, pampas
cat and the vulnerable ocelot, boa, the Andean cock of the rock, and the
Andean condor.
The natural vegetation is of
humid and very humid lower montane forest of the subtropical region,
mainly with genera and ferns of the Cyathea and palms.
Discovery of Machu Picchu
July
24 1911 is known as the date of the “discovery” of the famous Inca
citadel of Machu Picchu, an architectural treasure that had remained
hidden for over four centuries under the lush vegetation of the Urubamba
canyon. This find was made by the controversial American anthropologist
and historian with a penchant for archaeology, Professor Hiram Bingham
of Yale University.
Although the discovery is attributed to
Bingham, according to the Cusco researcher, Simone Waisbard, the find
was a chance one, since its first discoverers were apparently Enrique
Palma, Gabino Sanchez and Agustin Lizarraga, who left their names
engraved on one of the rocks there on July 14, 1901. Moreover, the Anglo
Saxon archaeologist was really looking for the city of Vitco, the last
refuge of the Incas, and their last bastion against the Spaniards. Thus,
the importance of Bingham’s discovery would lie in the scientific
diffusion of the information. However, for the protagonist of this
discovery, it was the crowning of an exhausting research effort, based
on information obtained from local peasants, as well as on several years
of traveling and exploring the area.
Before
Machu Picchu was discovered, it probably formed part of the Qollapani
and Kutija estates. Over the years, the Q`ente hacienda took possession
of the property. The discoverers, Palma, Sanchez and Lizarraga found a
local indian, Anacleto Alvarez, who had been paying a rent of twelve
soles a year for farming rights on the property during the last eight
years, living there.
The owners of the fundo would never have been
able to explore the whole place, due to its sheer size, and especially
because of its jagged topography. People had, in fact, been living in
Machu Picchu without having an idea of its size nor of its importance,
let alone being able to inform the world of these things.
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