Mountains and Memories

Enjoy these photos from Machu Picchu!

 

At the end of our travels we decided to take the simple route and go with the train to Machu Picchu.

 

One of the resident landscapers at Machu Picchu.

 

The storehouses along the edge of Machu Picchu next to the agricultural terraces.

 

This rock quarry sits in the middle of Machu Picchu and is where the Incas quarried their stone to build the city.

 

This is the main plaza where the citizens would gather with the residential buildings behind it.

 

Looking out on the main plaza with the agricultural terraces and the guardhouse in the distance.

 

The Sacred Rock, one of the many locations around the city where the citizens would go to make offerings and sacrifices.

 

The Sacred Rock is sacred because it bears the shape of the mountain behind it.

 

This demonstrates some of their engineering marvels. They built in rocks in the the building structure in order to fasten the roof to it.

 

Another engineering wonder, they would leave a shelf in the building structure to place the support beam for the roof.

 

I am standing atop a hill with the rock quarry and agricultural terraces behind me.

 

This view from the main plaza area looking out towards the agricultural terraces, the guardhouse, and the in the very middle of the photo is the "Inca's House". The term "Inca" is actually the title they used for their emperor.

 

Going home!

 

Some doors around Machu Picchu were rather large.

 

And some were small...

 

And a narrow path between the buildings.

 

Looking up at the temple of the three windows. The three windows represent the condor, the puma, and the snake. The condor represents the realm of the sky. The puma is for the realm of the earth. And the snake represents the realm below the earth.

 

This building had really short entrances.

 

The Incas built with the land instead of trying to remove the land and create a flat area to build.

 

This giant rock is situated inside of a house structure and was used as a support rock to build the stairs to the second level.

 

This giant rock inside of this building was used as a natural cellar as the cavity beneath it was about 10-15 degree cooler than the air outside. You can also see above me there is a ledge in the wall, that is where the floor would have rested for the second floor.

 

Picturesque walled path.

 

In some of the terrace walls were stones sticking out. These stones are actually stairs used to go from one level to the next. This wall was about 6 feet tall.

 

This ceremonial rock, or sacrificial altar, resides atop the hill near the guardhouse where all visits to Machu Picchu passed by upon entry and exit of the city.

 

Here is the classic view of Machu Picchu from the guardhouse overlooking the city.

 

Within the city of Machu Picchu there are three different qualities of masonry, rustic, classic, and imperial. The Rustic method used mortar between the stones where the classic and imperial methods fit the stones perfectly together with no mortar. This building is a temple made out of imperial quality masonry. When an earthquake would occur the stones would shake around and then fall back into place and the buildings would be unharmed. Due to increased seismic activity over the years this building has shifted apart slightly.

 

The wall on the right is the back wall of the Temple of the sun and is the imperial style masonry where the wall on the left is of rustic masonry.

 

Standing next to the guardhouse above the city.

 

This is beneath the Temple of the Sun. The masonry is superb and the Incas carved the rocks to fit perfectly in the empty spaces. The stepped rock in the middle was carved like that to serve in the temple practices.

 

Looking up at the Temple of the Sun. This window is lined up perfectly that the sun will shine in on the middle of the altar during the winter solstice. There is another window on the left side of the temple for the summer solstice.

 

Pachacutec is the Inca emperor who constructed Machu Picchu. He is also responsible for the largest amount of growth in the Inca empire. This statue of him in Aguas Calientes (Town of Machu Picchu) shows him with the condor on his shoulder, the puma between his legs, and the snake around his feet.