July 25, marks the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the "Lost City" of Machu Picchu.
Hiram Bingham III (1875-1956), historian,
explorer, treasure hunter and politician "discovered" the city that the
Incas had abandoned 400 years before and which the Spanish conquistadors
were never able to find. (He was the inspiration behind Hollywood's
Indiana Jones character.) About 1,000 people were living there at the
time.
Although other explorers had "found" Machu
Picchu years before, Bingham was the first to scientifically explore and
publicize the place that had been covered in an overgrowth of jungle
trees and vines. The entire April 1913 issue of National Geographic was devoted to his work there. Bingham also wrote about it, notably Inca Land: Explorations in the Highlands of Peru (1922) and Lost City of the Incas, a 1948 best-seller.
Machu
Picchu is built on the flat top of a mountain 2,000 feet above the
Urubamba River (named the Vilcamayo or Sacred River by the Incas) that
encircles the five-square-mile area. In the center of the plaza was a
sundial, the Intihuatana stone (meaning "Hitching Post of the Sun"),
that was dedicated to the god, Inti. It has alignments with the rising
and setting of the sun as well as the mountains during the spring (March
21) and fall (September 21) equinoxes, consequently, some scholars see
the area as a "sacred landscape."
The Spaniards never found Machu Picchu, even though they suspected its existence, thus the Intihuatana stone and its resident spirits remain in their original position. The mountain top sanctuary fell into disuse and was abandoned some forty years after the Spanish took Cuzco in 1533. Supply lines linking the many Inca social centers were disrupted and the great empire came to an end.
Machu Picchu sits 9,090 feet above sea level and 300 miles south of Lima. It is one of the most visited places in South America with 250,000 visitors per year. Four years ago it was voted one of the Seven Wonders of the World in a global Internet poll.
After Bingham's discovery, National Geographic magazine awarded him a $10,000 grant that was matched by Yale University where he was a professor of history and politics. This money afforded him three more expeditions to the site, which also led to the taking of 44,000 pieces and sparked a long-standing controversy between him, Yale, and Peruvians. This past March, 366 of those pieces were returned in time for the 100th anniversary celebration.
Seven hundred guests celebrated the
anniversary on July 8 complete with a symphony orchestra, fireworks and a
breathtaking light show. To read more and see photos of the
celebration, see the Daily Mail story.
MY EXPERIENCE AT MACHU PICCHU
I visited Machu Picchu in March 1986 as a W.K. Kellogg National Leadership Fellow. It was a memorable experience, mostly because I felt I touched the hand of God here and understood my smallness compared to the immensity of God's creation. To see an excerpt from my journal and a more expanded story with photos, check out my blog: http://olgabonfiglio.blogspot.com/2011/07/travelogue-100-year-anniversary-of.html
Machu Picchu was revered
as a sacred place at a time quite a bit before the Incas "adopted" it
as their own. The five-square-mile complex of palaces, baths, temples,
storage rooms and about 150 houses arranged around a central plaza was
completely self-contained. It was surrounded by agricultural terraces
and watered by natural springs that could accommodate the population
that lived there. Here is an example of the stone cuttings that were
fitted together without mortar. Their construction was well-suited for
earthquakes because they could sustain tremors without collapsing.
There is great speculation about why the Incas built Machu Picchu. Some say it was an estate and retreat site for Pachacuti and his royal court to relax, hunt and entertain guests. Others
speculate it was a nunnery or a training center for priestesses,
although that theory has been debunked since skeletal remains there were
half male and half female.
Bingham thought it was the birthplace of
Inca society but that theory has since been disproved, too, when
archaeologists determined that it was Espirtu Pampa, about 80 miles west
of the Inca capital city of Cuzco. Actually, Bingham was looking for
Vilcambamba la Vieja, the last stronghold of the Incas before the
Spanish conquistadors took over, when he found Machu Picchu.
The Spaniards never found Machu Picchu, even though they suspected its existence, thus the Intihuatana stone and its resident spirits remain in their original position. The mountain top sanctuary fell into disuse and was abandoned some forty years after the Spanish took Cuzco in 1533. Supply lines linking the many Inca social centers were disrupted and the great empire came to an end.
A 2009 study
by Giulio Magli, an astrophysicist at the Polytechnic Institute in
Milan, Italy, postulated that Machu Picchu was a pilgrimage site and a
scaled-down version of a mythic landscape from the Inca religion.
Worshipers could symbolically relive the harrowing journey of Manco
Capac and his sister, Mama Occlo, who both rose out of Lake Titicaca to
found a great city.
As legend has it, they were given a golden staff by the Sun, their father, who bade them
settle permanently at whatever place the staff should sink into the
earth. Through a series of adventures, geomantic resonances, and
astronomical correspondences, the site of Cuzco was chosen. According
to the most frequently told story, four brothers, Manco Capac, Ayar
Anca, Ayar Cachi, and Ayar Uchu, and their four sisters, Mama Ocllo,
Mama Huaco, Mama Cura (or Ipacura), and Mama Raua, lived at the
Paccari-Tampu [tavern of the dawn], several miles distant from Cuzo.
They gathered together the tribes of their locality, marched on the
Cuzco Valley, and conquered the tribes living there. Manco Capac had by
his sister-wife, Mama Ocllo, a son called Sinchi Roca (or Cinchi
Roca). Authorities concede that the first Inca chief to be a historical
figure was called Sinchi Roca (c. 1105-c. 1140). Thus the foundation
for an empire was laid.
Source: Info Please
Source: Info Please
Machu Picchu sits 9,090 feet above sea level and 300 miles south of Lima. It is one of the most visited places in South America with 250,000 visitors per year. Four years ago it was voted one of the Seven Wonders of the World in a global Internet poll.
After Bingham's discovery, National Geographic magazine awarded him a $10,000 grant that was matched by Yale University where he was a professor of history and politics. This money afforded him three more expeditions to the site, which also led to the taking of 44,000 pieces and sparked a long-standing controversy between him, Yale, and Peruvians. This past March, 366 of those pieces were returned in time for the 100th anniversary celebration.
MY EXPERIENCE AT MACHU PICCHU
I visited Machu Picchu in March 1986 as a W.K. Kellogg National Leadership Fellow. It was a memorable experience, mostly because I felt I touched the hand of God here and understood my smallness compared to the immensity of God's creation. To see an excerpt from my journal and a more expanded story with photos, check out my blog: http://olgabonfiglio.blogspot.com/2011/07/travelogue-100-year-anniversary-of.html
