Machu Picchu

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Our visit to the Machu Picchu, the touristic atraction in Peru, was one of the highlights in our trip. To reach the secret town, we choose one of the cheapest option: first two buses to get from Cuzco to Ollantaytambo, from there a train in the evening to Aguas Calientes. The next morning we took a bus( for 12 dollars, my god, a daily budget, but the only alternative for a 4 hours steep trekking) to reach the entrance. The entrance fee was about 80 soles, and for that money you get the most impressive sight ever seen. It is difficult to describe the vibrations and the atmosphere,I can only advice you to put this place at least somewhere on you dreamlist... The prices to get there are ridiculous high, it is almost robbery, but I can asure you that, at least for me, it was worth every single sol!

Sorry that I can´t write that much, I do have a lot of great memories but my writers talent leaves me alone for the moment and I can´t find the right words. Maybe the pictures will help yo to get an idea....

some info

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Machu Picchu (which means "manly peak") was most likely a royal estate and religious retreat. It was built between 1460 and 1470 AD by Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, an Incan ruler. The city has an altitude of 8,000 feet, and is high above the Urubamba River canyon cloud forest, so it likely did not have any administrative, military or commercial.

Machu Picchu is comprised of approximately 200 buildings, most being residences, although there are temples, storage structures and other public buildings. It has polygonal masonry, characteristic of the late Inca period.

About 1,200 people lived in and around Machu Picchu, most of them women, children, and priests. The buildings are thought to have been planned and built under the supervision of professional Inca architects. Most of the structures are built of granite blocks cut with bronze or stone tools, and smoothed with sand. The blocks fit together perfectly without mortar, although none of the blocks are the same size and have many faces, some of them have more than 30 corners.
One of the most important things found at Machu Picchu is the intihuatana, which is a column of stone rising from a block of stone the size of a grand piano. Intihuatana literally means ‘for tying the sun", although it is usually translated as "hitching post of the sun". As the winter solstice approached, when the sun seemed to disappear more each day, a priest would hold a ceremony to tie the sun to the stone to prevent the sun from disappearing altogether. The other intihuatanas were destroyed by the Spanish conquistadors, but because the Spanish never found Machu Picchu, it remained intact. Mummies have also been found there; most of the mummies were women.
Few people outside the Inca’s closest retainers were actually aware of Machu Picchu’s existence. Before the Spanish conquistadors arrived, the smallpox spread ahead of them. Fifty percent of the population had been killed by the disease by 1527. The government began to fail, part of the empire seceded and it fell into civil war. So by the time Pizarro, the Inca’s conquerer, arrived in Cuzco in 1532, Machu Picchu was already forgotten

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Photos

ceremonial part of the Machu Picchu
in this place they found some skeletons and a few presents that the family is given with them for the next life. Inca´s never burnt the dead bodies, they only burried them.

my best friend...
one of my favorith animal with the most beautiful eyes on earth!