Machu Picchu means "Old Mountain", in the Quechua language of the indigenous people's of the Andes, the Incas. Wayna Picchu, the mountain you see in the post card pictures, means "Young Mountain".
This morning after breakfast we walked down the hill to the bus station and waited in line with everyone else who had arrived the night before and had not gotten up at the crack of dawn. It did not take long as the buses were continually pulling up to engorge more passengers. The ride up to the site takes about half an hour up several switchbacks. The town and river below getting smaller and smaller. The road is basically dirt with cobblestones around the curves to keep the road from becoming rutted. There were workers on the road filling in the potholes. Guardrails are few and far between and there were established pullout areas for when we met oncoming buses going down to pick up more tourists. We thought the road was pretty good especially compared to the Copper Canyon in Mexico.
We arrived just before 8:00 am and looked for someone holding a white flag which would indicate our guide. The bus unloads just in front of the only hotel that is at the site itself. It has a small restaurant which is open for lunch for non hotel guests but we did not check it out. Each bus load of people try to pair up to guides and then go through the entrance where they stamp your ticket.
We found our guides and went through the gate and then started up the 100 meter footpath to the view point where you can take the classic postcard photograph and then climb a zigzagging staircase to enter the complex and to the Hut of the Caretaker of the Funerary Rock. Our group had both Spanish, French and English speakers so we split up. We went with the English speaking guide, Saul, along with the French folks. Saul is of Inca descent and has been a guide at Machu Picchu and the Inca trail for seven years. He took us off the main path to an area where we could sit down and rest and he could explain about the site without having to shout over other guides.
It took about 80 years to build the complex. I call it that since the name Machu Picchu refers to the mountain, not to the city below and we do not know the name. 80 years represents the time the Incas started to build on the site until they abandoned it when they were conquered by the Spanish, at which time building had not been completed and the Incas destroyed parts of the Inca trail leading up to the site so that the Spanish would not find it. During Inca times, everyone, 16 to 65 years old, paid taxes, this could be in the form of good or services. To pay one's taxes, one would work on the construction of the complex for 3 months a year and before returning to their families. Over 20,000 people worked on the building of the complex at any one time. Workers were provided with food, a place to stay, music and plenty of coca leaves to keep them working all day long,
The complex provided housing for 500 royalty, priests, etc, on a permanent basis. Others may come to stay at the site temporarily for say religious ceremonies. We don't know the true purpose of the site. There is speculation that it might have been similar to a university where students would come to learn science, engineering, astronomy or agriculture or it might have been a religious or astronomy center as there are sacred stones as at other sites to determine the winter solstice. Other theories say it was a city of virgins or that it was built by aliens of the outer space kind. I think the university idea is good. Our guide also told us that the agriculture plots on the terraces were growing species of plants that were hybrids of plants commonly used in the region. Each terrace has a drainage system which allows the water to flow out, prevent erosion and the growing area from becoming waterlogged in the rainy season.
Llamas, a sacred animal of the Incas, have some run of the place so occasionally you need to watch your step.
It is hard to describe the place and not repeat what others have said. It does seem mystic or magical. A real estate agent would repeat the words, "Location, location, location". The site has access to spring water, commanding views of the valleys below, a climate such that food plants grow well and a supply of people in Cusco and the Sacred Valley in between to build and support the complex.
We hiked over much of the site. We decided to pass on the 2 hour climb up Wayna Picchu or the 1 1/2 hour climb up Machu Picchu. Just hiking in the main complex requires concentration as the rocks in the path are not even, nor are the risers in the stairs. I imagine the architect telling the king that this would be done in the final phases after years 80, 81, 82....
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