January 30th, 2009 Machupicchu

Machupicchu is a settlement constructed by the Incas in XV century. It was constructed between the mountains among steep gradient and a deep canyon that forms the Urubamba River.

 

Almost one century after its archeological discovery and recent studies in the documents of the XVI century there are good theories to suppose that Machupicchu town was like the Pyramid of Pharaoh of Egypt or the tomb of emperor Chin Shin Huan of China, the luxurious mausoleum of Pachacuteq Inca, the founder and the first Tahuantinsuyo emperor …………Luis Guillermo Lumbreras.

 

No one doubts that the Sanctuary has a superior rank, and at the same time it is considered a masterpiece of architecture and engineering. The process of its construction still remains unknown but it seems like it had been done in a single project equivalent to the Sanctuary or urbanization.

 

 

This place was known as Picchu, Piccho or Picho during the colonial age and it has two parts: Machu (old) and Wayna (young). Picchu means “hill” and hence the name is only descriptive. Patallacta (a town in the heights) could be the town or the house where the mommy of Pachacutec was kept.

 
In Machupicchu citadel lived only few persons, probably no more than 200 or 300. Presumably all of them had a high rank and have been linked to the Inca lineage.

 

It is supposed that the Machupicchu citadel remained uninhabited after 1540 when the Spanish in campain against the Incas of Vilcabamba began their penetration of the Cusquenian land. In the beginning of Machupicchu it was entrusted to Hernando Pizarro and then to someone with the name Arias Maldonado. Also in the XVI century. In 1565, when the Inca Sayri Tupac lived in Vilcabamba, all the Inca´s towns have been uninhabited according to the relation published in 1910 by a historian Richard Pietschmann.

 
Today Machupicchu is known in the world as one of the 7 wonders of the world.