Friday, 1 November 2024

Machu Picchu

The bus picked us up at 4.25am from Cusco for the two hour drive to the train station. We waited at the station and were then walked down to the carriage by singers and dancers in traditional dress.

Once we had settled in to our lovely train with panoramic windows, we set off on the 90 minute journey to the little town in the valley below Machu Picchu. 

After a few minutes the dancers appeared and mimed and danced along the carriage where after a few false starts they eventually fell in love. Not long after that they reappeared and served coffee and tea. You don't get that from British Rail.

Then we got another bus up hair pin bends to the entrance to the city, and at 10am we arrived exactly in time for our visit.

The city was the capital of the Inca civilisation, but was abandoned and lost for nearly 400 years, before it was rediscovered in 1911.

In total around 6,000 people are allowed to visit each day, and tickets sell out months in advance. There is a choice of three different routes and we had route two. I think that they are roughly the same, but it spreads the visitors out across the whole area.

Ours took a direct route straight to the top of the city, and we took lots of photos from the terraces on the way.


Higher and higher we went. The weather was gorgeous, but we had been warned that the sun was very strong at this altitude and the mosquitos very bitey, so I covered up almost every inch of skin.


Finally we reached a flat open area that was just outside of the city and where they used to grow crops. From there was an amazing view of all of the surrounding mountains and the city spread out below.


There are no written records to show why this particular very inaccessible place was chosen to build a city, but it was right alongside of the main Inca trail that led from the high Andes to one side and the lower jungle areas to the other. So at that time it was probably a very convenient place next to a busy trail.


The city was made from the existing granite rocks and it was so well made that when it was rediscovered, a lot of it was still exactly as it was left, and all that was needed was to remove the huge blanket of vegetation.


Many rocks were shaped to fit exactly, and were built like Lego blocks with lumps in one block and tightly fitting holes in another, so that it all clicked together. Mostly it has not moved despite being in an earthquake area.


Llamas were domesticated by the Incas and there are a few happy looking ones living in the city today.

We walked gradually down through the city and eventually got back to our starting point.


Then it was just the small task of re-tracing our journey back down the mountain on the bus, on the train and then the bus back to our hotel.


One final question, why was such a wonderful place abandoned?
Our guide explained that it was built from around 1420 and the Spanish arrived in 1532. They went around conquering the country and in 1536 the local people gathered together to make an army to try to resist them.
They all left the city to join the resistance and they destroyed the ancient pathways in the hope that the Spanish would not find the city.



The Spanish never did find the city, but they killed most of the Incas and they never returned.  
Down the centuries rumours of a fantastic lost city became well known, and eventually it was rediscovered in 1911.
Gradually it was cleared and renovated and today it is known as one of the seven wonders of the modern world.

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