The Inca civilization is thought to have built Machu Picchu. The Incas were a highly organized pre Colombian civilization. Their last ruler, Tupac Amaru was executed by the Spanish in 1572 by public hanging in Cusco.

Machu Picchu was unknown to the outside world until July 24th 1911, when American Hiram Bingham stumbled upon the then over grown site. He later described the find in his book ‘ Lost City of the Incas: The story of Machu Picchu and its builders’. Incidentally Bingham was a lecturer at the Yale University, not a trained archaeologist. Hiram Bingham was later elected the Governor of Connecticut and then US Senator from Connecticut from 1924-33.

The mountain range that Machu Picchu is located is Andes. Some stones used in the town’s construction is estimated to weigh 300 tons. Archaeologists are unsure how it moved in place at the top of the mountain. It is located about 8000 feet about sea level. It is also estimated that it might have taken about 80 years to build this town.

In addition to its terraces and sophisticated water drainage system, Machu Picchu is widely known for precision stone work with no mortar between stone joints. They are so precisely fitted that even standard playing card cannot be fitted between adjacent stones. What is more impressive is that all this precision finish work was done with stone tools.

There are approximately 200 residences in the village in about 5 square miles. These residences were probably homes for the wealthy Inca nobility. The village walls were made with an inward inclination for protection against earth quakes.

When the Spaniards invaded South America in the 16th Century, they conquered all villages in this Empire. Machu Picchu was left out because the Spaniards never found it. Some historians believe the Incas had already abandoned it by the time of the Spanish conquest of 1530s.

No one really knows why Machu Picchu was abandoned. But several explanations were cited but contested that include – Severe famine resulted when the population got too big for the available food supply or a disastrous fire destroyed much of the town.

The Inca Trail is a walking route that leads through the mountains above the Urubamba river, following ( at least partly) the course of the old Inca road way leading to the Citadel Machu Picchu.

In 1983, UNESCO designated Machu Picchu a World Heritage Site describing it as ‘ an absolute master piece of architecture and an unique testimony to the Inca civilization’

In 2007, it was voted one of the ‘New Seven Wonders of the World’ in a world wide internet poll.

“ Few romances can ever surpass that of the granite citadel on top of the beetling precipices of Machu Picchu, the crown of the Inca Land”-Hiram Bingham

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Mysterious Machu Picchu