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The citadel of Machu Picchu, meaning “old peak” in the native Quechua language, is named for the mountain on which it sits. It looms 2,000 feet above the serpentine Urubamba River in the tropical mountain forest of the upper Amazon basin. The city’s finely hewn granite blocks comprise dwellings, agricultural terraces and storehouses, plazas and temples. It is recognized as a feat of architectural planning, engineering and stonemasonry and was built without the use of iron tools or draught animals.
Machu Picchu was constructed around 1450, at the height of the Inca empire, and was abandoned less than 100 years later, as the empire collapsed under Spanish conquest. Although the citadel is located only about 50 miles from Cusco, the Inca capital, it was never found and destroyed by the Spanish, as were many other Inca sites. Over the centuries, the surrounding jungle grew to enshroud the site, and few knew of its existence. It wasn’t until 1911 that Yale historian and explorer Hiram Bingham brought the “lost” city to the world’s attention. Bingham and others hypothesized that the citadel was the traditional birthplace of the Inca people or the spiritual center of the “virgins of the sun,” while curators of a recent exhibit have speculated that Machu Picchu was a royal retreat. Regardless, the presence of numerous temples and ritual structures proves that Machu Picchu held spiritual significance for the Inca.
To the Inca, the world and its environment were sacred. “Pachamama,” mother earth, cared for them, and they in turn were responsible for her care. The Inca believed the spirits of their creator resided in the natural elements—the sun, the moon, the earth, mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, wind—and they erected temples and other ritual spaces to honor these spirits, including many at Machu Picchu. The Incas’ harmonious relationship with nature is evident in the way the structures of Machu Picchu blend rather than compete with the extraordinary natural beauty of the setting. Although the region’s indigenous people were forced to convert to Catholicism after the Spanish conquest, they have maintained their traditional beliefs as well. However, because many ancestral sacred places are archeological sites and tourist attractions, the indigenous people have little access or control over them today. This is certainly the case at Machu Picchu.