The archaeological complex of Machupicchu is located in the department of Cusco, in the province of Urubamba and the district of Machupicchu. It is perched on the eastern slope of the Vilcanota mountain range, a chain of mountains cut by the Apurímac and Urubamba rivers. At 13º7′ south latitude and 72035′ west longitude of the Greenwich meridian, Machupicchu is located at an elevation of 2,350 meters above sea level (main plaza). More information >>>
It is located in a subtropical or dense forest area, so the climate is temperate, warm and humid, with an average temperature throughout the year of 21ºC (69ºF) during the day. Two different seasons can be perceived during the year: the rainy season, from November to March, which is a time of heavy rain. Visitors are advised to dress appropriately during this season. The dry season, from April to October, brings higher temperatures. More information >>>
Both are abundant and varied. The typical flora of the Machupicchu historical reserve includes Pisonayes, Q’eofias, Alisos, Puya Palms, Ferns and more than 90 species of orchids.
The fauna of the reserve are bears, cocks of the rock or “tunqui”, tankas, wild cats and an impressive variety of butterflies and insects unique to the region.
The shape of the land, the natural environment and the strategic location of Machupicchu give this monument a fusion of beauty, harmony and balance between the work of the ancient Peruvians and the whims of nature.
Machu Picchu, land of Orchids Many species have lived in the Sanctuary for centuries, but only one is the queen of all plants and living beings, with more than 300 species and many colors, this plant is something so beautiful to observe and smell. , that is why Machu Picchu, Land of Orchids, must live forever.
It is not possible to specify who was the first to settle these lands, since it was a time of occupation rather than foundations. Machupicchu was visited by explorers long before Hiram Bingham, although with little success. Among them, Antonio Raymondi, the Count of Sartiges and Charles Wiener. Other visits included one in July 1909 by the Santander brothers, whose inscription can be found carved at the base of the Temple of the Sun. At the same time, Peruvian explorers Enrique Palma, Augustin Lizárraga and Gavino Sánchez arrived at the citadel via the route of San Miguel.
The railway line runs parallel to the river in sinuous curves that follow the riverbed. From here you can see the typical vegetation of the high jungle, which rises to the top of the steep mountain range that forms the Urubamba Canyon. The train passes through the Chilca station, from where you can see the snow-capped peak called “Verónica”. With a height of 5,750 meters above sea level, it is the highest peak in the Urubamba mountain range. The train stops at kilometer 88, where the Inca Trail begins.
La línea férrea discurre paralela al río en sinuosas curvas que siguen el cauce. Desde aquí se puede ver la vegetación típica de la selva alta, que sube hasta la cima de la escarpada cordillera que forma el Cañón del Urubamba. El tren pasa por la estación de Chilca, desde donde se puede ver el pico nevado llamado «Verónica». Con una altura de 5.750 metros sobre el nivel del mar, es el pico más alto de la cordillera del Urubamba. El tren se detiene en el kilómetro 88, donde comienza el Camino Inca.
El tren sigue su camino, pasando por la estación de Pampacahua y el pueblo de Aguas Calientes, situado en el kilómetro 110. Cuando la línea de tren se encuentra con una pared de imponentes montañas de granito, se sumerge en dos túneles antes de llegar a la estación de Puente Ruinas. Desde aquí, los minibuses llevan a los viajeros por 8 kilómetros de carretera hasta el Hotel Turístico. El control de entrada a la ciudadela inca se realiza cerca del hotel.
La ciudadela de Machu Picchu ha tenido varios períodos de ocupación. Según las crónicas, el estilo de construcción y la cerámica encontrada es …Más información
The guided tour of Machupicchu begins on a path that starts from the bus terminal. The road, purpose-built for tourism, enters the citadel in the section that houses a set of rooms near the outer wall. The path continues along a terrace to access the agricultural area before reaching the urban area.
Full of magic, ancient culture and the friendliest people ever, Cusco is a great city to enjoy, but nothing is complete if you don’t visit Machu Picchu, a sanctuary with one of the most intriguing buildings and architecture of the ancient world.
Access to Machu Picchu is a risky but grateful walk, it has its ups and downs, but you will not regret it. For more information, review the section How to get to Machu Picchu, this link shows you which options are your preference.
There are many places that you can visit while you are in the Sanctuary, but there are 3 or 4 places that are outstanding for your visit, for this you can review the Best of Machu Picchu, where you can see all the places and the main attractions of the site.>
If you like to be in contact with Mother Nature and feel everything that surrounds you, you will enjoy the entire place, but if you do not like rain and humid climates, you should check out the Best time to go to Machu Picchu, where you can find the months that are appropriate for your visit and stay.
All the photos of Machu Picchu that you will find on the Internet cannot and will not be able to compare with the meticulous work that the Incas had to do to achieve this incredible result. Not only Machu Picchu but many archaeological sites spread throughout Peru…More information >>>
The citadel is divided into two sectors: the agricultural (terracing) and the urban, where there are main squares, temples, palaces, warehouses, workshops, stairs, cables and water sources that run through both sectors, which measure 20 and 10 hectares respectively.
It is evident that the architectural design was based on Cusco, the capital of the Inca empire. Machupicchu was built according to its natural environment, with its buildings following the natural curves and unevenness of the terrain.
Archaeological excavations carried out after Bingham discovered the ruins showed that the land previously had granite foundations with little soil around them.
The agricultural and urban sectors are divided by a dry ditch, the result of a geographic fault.
The following chapters describe the most important constructions in each sector.
Italy has the Roman Colosseum, the United Kingdom has Stonehenge, Egypt has its pyramids and China has the Great Wall, but none of them have a stone city built in the mountains, so mysterious and beautiful that many think it was not made by the humans . That city is located in Machu Picchu and in Peru… More information >>>
The sector is surrounded by a series of terraces of different types and sizes that had two main functions: cultivating and stopping erosion caused by rains. The most striking terraces are found at the entrance to the citadel. They begin in the group of rooms at the entrance and climb to the top of the mountain until they stop at a large rectangular room. It is clear that the upper terraces at the entrance were intended for agriculture, as they have raised steps and are much larger. spacious. The lower terraces, for their part, have different shapes because they were built as foundations.
There are no canals because they were not necessary, since the constant rains and constant humidity allowed the plants to grow without the need for irrigation. The only water channel that flows through the urban sector crosses the central terrace.
In the agricultural sector there are five rooms that look like warehouses in Chincheros and Ollantaytambo.
It is a three-walled room with a view with several windows, located in front of the main door. From here you have a panorama of the agricultural and urban sectors and the surrounding landscape. It is a good idea to take photos from this angle as it gives the visitor a good view of the complex.
In every Inca city, the dead were buried on the outskirts of the city, which is where in this case the Cusco archaeologists found human remains. At the top, they also found sculpted stones that belong to the area, indicating that the Incas used the stones to make offerings to their gods. In this same area there is a granite rock sculpted with steps. But the most striking thing is that it is crossed by a ring, the purpose of which is unknown. This ritual boulder is very similar to that of the Hispanic ñusta from the ruins of Vilcabamba I. At the top you can see a body-shaped stain as if the people had been placed on their backs.
While the agricultural sector is cut by a dry ditch, you can see a long staircase leading to the main door.
In this sector are the most important constructions of any Inca city, where you can appreciate the talent, effort and quality of the pre-Hispanic builders, since the constructions are made entirely of granite, a very hard rock and different from the one used in Cusco.
The city is U-shaped. In the northern section is the large religious sector containing the platform terraced houses and workshops that Bingham called the Military Group. The main buildings in the urban sector are the following
This construction has the shape of a semicircle and is built on solid rock, an existing granite block molded to blend with the natural curves, with a diameter of 10.50 meters. It is composed of highly polished polyhedra. In this building there are two trapezoidal windows with knobs protruding from each corner, and on the north side there is a carefully sculpted door with holes in the jamb, very similar to the temple of Qoricancha in Cusco. Spanish historians say that there was once gold and precious jewels embedded in the door. To the west of the temple is a rectangular courtyard with nine alternating ceremonial gates studded in the shape of a prism.
This stone is located on a hill made up of several terraces. The visitor can access the stone through 78 well-crafted steps. At the end of the stairs you enter an open courtyard with equally well sculpted walls, and where you can see an upper platform where there is a granite rock sculpted into three steps. In the central part you can see a 36 cm high rectangular prism that points from northwest to southeast.
Its four corners are directed to the four cardinal points. The Intiwatana had specific functions: it measured time (the solstice and equinox) using sunlight and shadow, and it also served as an altar. In Quechua, “Inti” means “sun” and “Wata” means “year”, which gives us the meaning of a solar year observatory.
The sacred rock, situated on a four-sided site flanked by two three-sided halls, features a monolithic rock sculpture 3 cm high and 7 m wide at its base. The pedestal, about 30 cm high, resembles a feline. From another angle, it looks like the profile of a mountain near Machupicchu. It is possible that this set of buildings, along with two “Wayranas”, or three-sided rooms, were used for rituals.
It is located west of the main square and has a large rectangular floor plan. Its name is due to the fact that its main face has three windows and two blind openings. Along with the main temple, it is the most impressive architecture in all of Machupicchu. The enormous polyhedra have been carved and joined with millimeter precision.
In front of the Wayrana style construction, on the large door jamb next to the central column that supports the roof, there is a lithograph sculpted with molds and carefully polished flat pieces.
The temple is located north of the Sacred Plaza, very close to the Temple of the Three Windows. It is built with three walls and is 11 m long and 8 m wide.
Doors are a common sight in Machupicchu and especially in this sector. They vary in texture, size and architectural style that differentiates them from each other, although they all have the same trapezoidal shape. Some have a single jamb and lintel and others have two. Some doors are simple and others have different security mechanisms, such as stone rings, central trunks and other mechanisms that served to tie the beams and make the doors more secure.
To the south of the complex, between the Temple of the Sun and the Royal Palace, the area houses a series of water sources, the only sources of the vital element for the inhabitants of Machupicchu. The first three water sources or «PaqchaS7 in Quechua, have been extremely well sculpted. The architectural structures in this area are basically sculpted rock to which other decorations are added such as the spillway and the side walls. This beautiful finish is due to the harmony between the Temple of the Sun and the Royal Palace. These sources were fed by groundwater and were conducted through a canal to be used to irrigate crops.
The huge inclined stone block that supports the Temple of the Sun has a large crack in its lower part, which has been exceptionally decorated and furnished to be later used as a tomb.
It was also a place of worship and offerings to the mummified bodies of the main authorities. On the door there is a carving that represents the symbol of the goddess Mother Earth. Inside there are niches, monolithic pillars and other accessories used for religious purposes and to care for the mummies.
There are four main plazas at different levels, but they share the characteristic of being rectangular in the classic Inca style, interconnected by stairs sunk into the parameters of the terraces. The main square is the largest, which, like the main squares of all Inca cities, had religious and social functions.
The fourth open area is a plaza flanked by terraces with their respective access roads, similar to those of the Chavín culture of 1,000 BC.
On July 14, 1911, Hiram Bingham arrived along with a team of Yale University specialists in topography, biographies, geology, engineering, and osteology, led by local resident Melchor Arteaga. They asked him about the city, and he told them that it was located on the top of an ancient peak (“Machu Picchu” in Quechua).
Later, in 1914, Hiram Bingham returned to Machupicchu with the economic and logistical support of Yale University and the Geographic Society of the United States with the aforementioned specialists, whose report was published and disseminated throughout the world with the title “The “lost city of the Incas.”
On the original map, Bingham carved Machupicchu into sectors according to the four cardinal points. Some names have remained the same, but 76 years after the discovery of Machupicchu, scientific studies carried out by archaeologists from the archaeological foundation of the National Institute of Culture, as well as by delegations of foreign scientists, have provided valuable conclusions about the use and functions of buildings. These were based on archaeological excavations and architectural relationships between buildings of similar construction throughout the vast Inca empire.
The periods of occupation have been broken down into the following, based on historical accounts, construction style and ceramics:
1. 1. Initial (up to 1,300 AD)
2. 2. Classical (up to 1,400 AD)
3. Imperial (up to 1533 AD)
4. Contact or Transition (1533 to 1572)
There are 112krn of railway line between the city of Cusco and the Puente Ruinas or Machupicchu station. The trip begins at the San Pedro station in Cusco, zig-zagging up the Picchu mountain until reaching the highest point, a place called “El Arco”, in the northwest part of the city.
– Next, the route descends through the towns of Poroy, Cachimayo and Izcuchaca until reaching the Anta plain, an extensive livestock area. It goes up the Pomatales ravine before descending to the Sacred Valley of the Incas, arriving at the Pachar station. Next, the route crosses the Urubamba River towards the right bank and reaches the Ollantaytambo station. For those from the Sacred Valley, you can board the train to continue to Machupicchu.
At a distance of 800 meters east of the town of Aguas Calientes, there are underground hot sulfur springs that gush out of the rocky soil at different temperatures.
The purpose-built pools at this resort are the basis for its use as hot mineral baths. The average water temperature ranges between 38ºc and 46ºc. There are also changing rooms, bathrooms and a small bar.
Tourist Train, It only works in high season, it leaves Cusco in the morning, stopping at the most important stations (Ollantaytambo, Km.88 or Ooriwayrachina) until reaching the Puente Ruinas station. The trip lasts four hours and returns in the afternoon.
Autovagon, This tourist service leaves Cusco in the morning and takes three hours. The trip from the Sacred Valley of the Incas (Urubamba to Ollantaytambo) lasts an hour and a half. Return in the afternoon.
It is recommended to check all schedules at train stations and travel agencies, as they change depending on the season.
For more information click on the following links
Train to Machu Picchu
Tickets to Machu Picchu
You can choose from many of the restaurants in Machu Picchu that are located in the city of Machu Picchu itself, and enjoy a great meal and view. The dishes served are for all types of tastes, from native cuisine to international cuisine; You can have many drinks such as Inti sour, Pisco sour, and the famous Coca sour… More information >>>
If you want to spend some time and feel the adrenaline, you can’t miss the adventure sports in Machu Picchu. When you are on a travel vacation, you should check the possibilities of doing some other things besides visiting the Machu Picchu Sanctuary, there are also many things that you have to put on your adventure travel list…
The gastronomy in Machu Picchu is very varied, due to its enormous diversity in Peru, this is because people like the Incas had to be able to harvest all types of products that taste and do good for the entire Empire…More Information > >>
Museums of Machu Picchu: The enormous artifacts that Hiram Bingham brought to his University are one of the most beautiful collections in the entire country, and for a few years it has had its own place, the Manuel Chávez Ballón Site Museum of Machu Picchu… More Information >>>
Since the beginning of time, humans have created many sounds to imitate the blowing of the wind, waterfalls, and many other sounds. The Incas had a pentaphonic structure, which made their music so relaxing and elaborate, and now comes Music and Machu Picchu to take our breath away with these magnificent masterpieces.
Dreams are like our own version of a better, fantastic world, and many of our dreams sometimes come true when you are watching a big screen and realizing how good life would be if it were a movie. And that is why Cinema and Machu Picchu combine two of the best things in the world: Such a refined and classic art, and one of the modern wonders of the world.
In our travel guide, you will be able to know everything you need to know this country that awaits you with many emotions and memories that you will carry with you for a lifetime, we are travelers like you, and we know each route and the beauty that we can share with you;, only Sit back and enjoy reading these contents, you will learn a lot; And if you want to continue reading just come back soon as we are always updating this section with news and new information
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