Getting High in Peru: Machu Picchu (Old Bird), the City of Ultimate Hope, Part 2

Getting High in Peru: Machu Picchu (Old Bird), the City of Ultimate Hope, Part 2 and Final Blog about our Archaeological Adventures in Peru in 2013.

Hotel Painting explained below

Google Earth Picture showing Machu Picchu and Wayna Picchu

Above and below is our rest stop after descending Wayna Picchu

We rested after the descent from Wayna Picchu before we finally began our tour of the site. Machu Picchu is a 15^th century Inca citadel that stayed hidden from the Spanish conquistadors. This site is not mentioned in any chronicle written by the Spanish. The Quechua people knew it was there, and it was not until 1911 that the North American Hiram Bingham was taken to the site.  Compared to archaeology in the Middle East, excavation of the Inca or pre-Inca sites are in its nascent state. Not enough excavation has happened yet in the region for the Inca scholars to formulate complete typologies of artifacts. 

 Student Pictures below of Machu Picchu

Anna's shot with Wayna Picchu in back

Carmen B.'s shot

Carmen B.'s shot

Carmen B.'s shot

One of the first stopping points where Guide Jesus explains the site

The students are attentive

We are in the Residential Sector

Note the extensive terracing. We are heading for the temples

Fountains continue to flow above and the two below

 

Machu Picchu is an awe-inspiring site that displays the superb construction technique of the Inca unmatched today, an engineering marvel. It was a city, a citadel and temple complex, which included an observatory, that may have housed only 500 Inca, but it may have taken 1000s of Inca to construct this marvel over a period of decades? The guide books recommend a visit of three hours, but this was not nearly enough time for me. But I was tired from the morning climb and knew that I was planning to return in 2014 and perhaps again in 2015 (Ojala). So, with the climb up Wayna Picchu and the tour of the ruins, we were here more than 6 hours, but this not enough onsite time. Perhaps my feeling are due to the fact that I am an archaeologist and this site, like Petra, Jordan where I have spent a lot of time, is a marvelous site.    

 

Note the huge block construction

Temple of the Sun above and below

Temple of the Sun with its fine stonework, altar, and trapezoidal windows

Now we are near the Temple of the Three Windows

 

Temple of the Three Windows with huge trapezoidal windows and 3-ton lintel stones. The temple was roofed with huge stones going from where the students are sitting to the pillar on the left side.

View of the center of the temple

 

The other side of the temple which again shows that it had been roofed.

A worker is using a trowel to scrape off growth. Note how the stonework and hols the two side walls lean in to aid in placing a roof

Now we are below the Temple of the Three Windows. Note the stonework and the people for perspective.

One of Machu Picchu’s recent directors believes that they have located eight access points leading to and from this site, which led him to conclude that Machu Picchu was part of a trade nexus linking the Andes to the Amazon basin.    

The Spirit Guardians of Machu Picchu

            In reference to the painting of Machu Picchu with the puma (earth), the condor (sky), and the snake (underworld), the Inca needed to live in harmony with nature and needed to appease the spirit guardians periodically with offerings. The spirits would reciprocate. 

            Waynapicchu represented a puma that was crouched to attack with its hackles up. The terraces near the peak shown in the previous post represented its raised hackles. To the left of Waynapicchu is another peak with three prominences (pic below). This one represents the condor, its head in the middle and on either side are its half-opened wings. 

Left of Wayna Picchu is the condor

Left of Wayna Picchu is the Condor and the residential sector is part of the lizard mentioned below.

Google Earth showing the "lizard" to the right of the green area.

Google Earth highlighting the "lizard"

              The residential and industrial sectors to the right and the entire length of the plateau leading to Wayna Picchu is said to resemble a giant lizard that emerged from the river below to this location. Other symbolism is mentioned but I do not see it in my pictures. There were too many tourists while we were there that afternoon to appreciate its possible magical atmosphere and we were not there long enough for solitary reverie. 

            Machu Picchu (Old Bird) fortunately missed the destructive efforts of the Spanish conquistadors. It’s too bad that the Old Bird, the guardian spirit of peace could not return to help revive the spirit of paz/shalom/salaam in us. With the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors, there was no “paz” in this region in the 16^th century, and there are too many places in the world today where there is a lack of shalom/salaam and instead in too many places there is insecurity. Maranatha.     

A major source I used for the blogs on the Sacred Valley is entitled Cusco and the Sacred Valley of the Incas by Fernando E Elorrieta Salazar and Edgar Elorrieta Salazar. I bought the 2013 edition. I had noticed that many of the guides, including Jesus, were carrying this book, so I asked him where I could purchase it. I used some smaller guide books, and we always carry and use the Lonely Planet. Two older sources were Time-Life’s 1992 book entitled Incas: Lords of Gold and Glory, and another 1992 book entitled The Incas and Their Ancestry by Michael E. Moseley, a Thames and Hudson book. 

 This is my final blog on Peru about my 4-month visit to Peru in 2013. My focus was on its archaeology, and I plan (Ojala) to return to this theme I my planned return in July 2014. 

Paz, Neal Bierling