Hidden History: Lost Civilizations, Secret Knowledge, and Ancient Mysteries, Brian Haughton [books you need to read .TXT] 📗

Picchu was known only to a few local farmers until it was rediscovered in 1911 by Hiram Bingham, Director of the Peruvian Expedition of the University of Yale. Bingham was led to the site by a local farmer named Melchior Arteaga, and at first the American thought that he and his team had discovered another lost Inca city called Vilcabamba. Bingham had read about Vilcabamba in 16th century Spanish chronicles as the jungle city to which the Inca fled after their failed rebellion against the Spanish. Bingham's party were surprised to find how remarkably well-preserved the mountain city was, 400 years after it had been mysteriously abandoned by its inhabitants. Hiram Bingham was the first to describe Machu Picchu as "the Lost City of the Incas" and he used it as the title of his first book, a bestseller which brought the site international attention. The lost city received further exposure in 1913 when the National Geographic Society dedicated their whole April issue to the site.

(D John Griffiths.

An Inca wall at Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu was built between A.D. 1460 and 1470 by Inca ruler and founding father of the Inca Empire, Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, and it seems

to have been inhabited until just before the Spanish conquest of Peru in 1532. The city, with its approximately 200 buildings (including houses, palaces, temples, observatories, and storage structures) is an astonishing achievement in urban planning, civil engineering, and architecture. The complex covers an area of about half a square mile and can be broadly divided up into three distinct areas or districts-agricultural, urban, and religious. The agricultural section contains a series of terraces and aqueducts, which utilize the natural slopes of the land, and function not only as cultivation platforms but also retention walls to prevent erosion. The area also includes small, humble dwellings built around narrow alleys, thought to have been occupied by farmers. The urban section of the complex is separated from the agricultural by a wall. In the southern part of this area is a series of recesses carved into the rock and named "the jail" by Bingham because of these small niches, where he thought prisoners' arms were held in place by stone rings. It is more correctly identified nowadays as part of the Temple of the Condor, this complex deriving its name from what is thought to be an Andean Condor carved into a granite outcrop located at its lowest point. The collection of sophisticated structures next to the Temple built in a reddish stone is known as the Intellectuals' Quarters, where there seems to have been accommodation for the Amautas (high-ranked teachers), and also a section known as the Zone of the Nustas (princesses).

The Three-Windowed Temple, named for its three large trapezoidal windows that open onto the main plaza, contains a carved stone with figures symbolizing the three levels of the Andean World: the Hanan-Pacha (the higher world or heavenly paradise), the Kay-Pacha (the earthly world), and the Ukju-Pacha (the inner world where the gods live). The religious section also includes the Sacred Temple, an

excellent example of Inca stonemasonry, with large polished stone blocks perfectly joined together, the Priests' House, and an enigmatic shrine known as the Intihuatana, or Hitching Post of the Sun. This is one of the most important and mysterious constructions at Machu Picchu. It is composed of a column of granite, probably the gnomon or pointer of a sundial, rising from a huge pyramidal table-stone, and it is thought to have functioned as a solar observatory. At each winter solstice, during the Festival of Inti Raymi (or Festival of the Sun), the god would be symbolically secured to the stone by a priest in an attempt to prevent the complete disappearance of the sun.

(D John Griffiths.

The Intihuatana (hitching post of the sun), probably used as a solar observatory by the Incas.

The religious section contains splendid Inca architecture and masonry work. Its main part consists of the Sacred Plaza, the scene of popular ceremonies, surrounding the most significant buildings at Machu Picchu. The Sun Temple is a semicircular construction cut into the solid rock containing two windows, one facing to the east and the other towards the north. According to modern scientists, these two windows were used as a solar observatory; the east-facing window allowed an accurate measurement of the winter solstice by measuring the shadow cast by the central stone.

The main feature of Machu Picchu, and one that has amazed countless visitors, is the fine quality of the massive stone walls and buildings, constructed without mortar, using neither the wheel nor draught animals. Much of the characteristically polygonal masonry in these structures locks together so precisely that it is impossible to fit even the thinnest knife blade in between the joints. This Inca design ensures the stability of the structure in an area well-known for earthquakes. Due to the fine quality of the masonry and the apparent difficulty in transporting and erecting such huge stones, some alternative theorists have conjectured that laser technology was employed to build the structures at Machu Picchu, either by some lost ancient civilization or extraterrestrial visitors. The mystery of Machu Picchu's construction is further enhanced by the lack of any documentary evidence to indicate exactly how the buildings were erected. Research has shown that the Incas had a class of professional architects to design and organize the construction of such building complexes as Machu Picchu. When considering Inca architecture, it is vital to understand that these architects were experts at adapting the form of the construction to the landscape in which they were built. Consequently, existing rock formations were utilized in construction, sculptures were carved into rock faces, and water flowed through stone channels. Though it is not known exactly how the Inca moved such enormous blocks of stone, the general belief is that they used all the able-bodied men from captured tribes to push the stones, perhaps after levering them onto smaller

spherical stones, and then rolling them forward, moving the stones from the