Machu Picchu geschiedenis

It was running the 15th century. A very persistent people were developing and creating their own identity between forests and mountains, high altitudes and one of the most difficult geographies of the planet. They were the Incas; they were preparing for History. For the last centuries, this people created new techniques. They learned how to take full advantage from the soil, how to cut stones like butter, how to communicate with the magic world through nature. A nearby neighbor, the Chancas, a furious and brave opponent in the searching of territory supremacy, was in their way. Because of the Chancas, the young Inca´s Empire was locked into the Cusco region and its provinces. Then came Pachacutec (Pachacuti, 1438 to 1471), one of the most important Inca Emperors of history. An intense period of continuous conquests began, promoting the faster growing of the Empire. Pachacutec is thought to have been a great and courageous strategist that reorganized all the Empire by a very strict order including the army, achieving many victories and expanding not only their territories, but the fear all over the subcontinent. One of these events was the historic campaign against their old enemy, the Chancas, the people that ended submitting itself to the vast and huge power of the growing Empire. The Chancas were blasted. According to archaeologists, Machu Picchu was build to honor this great emperor, bringer of progress, and his legacy as the commander of the brightest period of the Empire -and the last of all. Machu Picchu was conceived as a refuge for the upper casts of the inca society. Its location was thought very carefully, looking for the best place for rituals and ceremonies, the best weather, the best isolation. Stone by stone, lots of people and years later, the humankind achievement was finished. They used the local source of rocks to make most of the construction. The shapes of some magic animals were taken into account in its design, like the condor (upper world), the jaguar (the human world) and the snake (the underground world). They considered everything, from the size of the rooms to the location of the toilettes and decoration. As time passed, Machu Picchu began to cover the whole landscape. Everywhere they look there was a building, a terrace or an aqueduct´s branch crossing the terrain. The low casts also lived there, but only working on the terraces or “andenes” and fields. The city had one zone for the agriculture and two for houses and temples. One group of houses was for the nobility and some temples, like the Temple of the Virgins of the Sun; the other was exclusively for the Royal Rooms and the Temple of the Sun. The Sacred Square divided these two areas. This division (Down or “Hurin”, Up or “Hanan”) was established before in their historic main city, Cusco: the center of the world. Suddenly, Machu Picchu was mysteriously abandoned for the first time in its brief history, probably because of the news they heard about the invasion by the Spanish conquerors. The goal could have been to protect the Emperor and the royalty members. It was forgotten even by the inca people because its existence was only known by a few nobles and upper casts. Years later, Machu Picchu played the last act of its history serving the incas. During the Resistance against the Spanish conquerors, Manco Inca, the last royal descendent of the great dynasty, defended what was left of his huge empire sheltering in those great walls of solid rock. He and his army almost defeated the invaders. But finally they had to run, scattering all over the region. Spanish went after Manco Inca, never knowing about the existence of Machu Picchu. Manco Inca ran to Ollantaytambo, and was killed years later by another group of spanish renegades. Four hundred years later; July 1911. An expedition of learned foreign explorers where opening their way through the dense mountain forest looking for rests of the Inca´s civilization. They have heard about the historic ruins of Choquequirao, located near Machu Picchu, and their visit to that place was the motivation to investigate more about what they thought may exist deeper inside de forest: the lost -and the last- capital of the Inca´s Empire. They got information about a lost inca city from villagers. They believed those fantastic stories. But they never imagined what they were about to discovered. The expedition leader: the famous american archeologist Hiram Bingham. Guided by a villager and followed by a peruvian police, Bingham began a new exploration of that region, tracking the rumors. Some weeks later, they found a place full of andenes, the historic storing-food terraces, still being cultivated by the natives. Those terraces seemed to Bingham as the ladders to some mystery, right on the top of that mountain, hidden behind the mist. Bingham decided to climb, discovering a lot of walls made by rock bricks. Behind the first cut of brush, the explorer was able to complete the picture of perfect geometry in his mind. Full of excitement, Bingham managed to get the support of the Yale University, returning almost immediately to fulfill one of the most extraordinary discoveries of the human history. Half a millennium later, Machu Picchu concentrates the meaning of thousands of beings that lived and died there, fighting for survival, for their land, for their culture. Half a millennium later, Machu Picchu remains, not just like a witness, but acting a leading role in History. Take a trip to Machu Picchu: you´ll get the journey of your life.