By no means am I trying to poke fun at this citadel high in the Andes; but indeed there are few words or emotions to describe that first encounter you have with this modern wonder, modern in the sense of only recently being protected. From the ground it is puzzling, the stones almost impossibly tight, their weight almost beyond belief, and on top of all that, it is all at the top of a mountain. So the questions come from all sides. How? Why? And why here? And bear in mind that this is the "cleared" version, the site now almost pristinely restored for the nearly 6000 visitors who flock here daily during the busy summer months of December through March (remember, you're in Peru so the seasons are close to the opposite of the US). And as with so many other "discovered" ancient sites (such as at Angkor Wat), one had to wonder if this royal setting was merely a small part of the actual size of Machu Picchu. That is the case for Machu Picchu's park and UNESCO designations (such protected status as a sanctuary didn't arrive until the early 1980s): the Machu Picchu that visitors see may seem large for its 25 acres, but the actual park is closer to 600 acres in size. Guards throughout the park do their best to keep visitors in line, as do the many gardeners who work each day with the vegetation (the tropical growth would otherwise quickly reclaim the site). All that said, the first time you ascend that path and come upon the site which lays before you, you are left speechless.
If I had just five places to note (along the lines of
1000 Places to See Before You Die), I would add Machu Picchu, with one caveat...having good weather. That first view is as stunning and as indescribable as first viewing the Grand Canyon, or perhaps glimpsing that giraffe in the wild. All that childhood awe and wonder fills your head and yet frustratingly leaves you unable to convey it to others. Words such as "you have to go there," or "unbelievable" just don't penetrate that walled veneer we all have: the priority we give to other things, our lack of time or our lack of money (or in many cases, our lack of interest). As with the many in our group, we feared that the hype and documentaries and the zillions of professional photographs in magazines and online would taint our initial reaction. But truly, there are certain places that will shake you with surprise and this was certainly one of them. But the weather. Let's talk about that. We were super-lucky since forecasts showed rain coming daily; indeed guides at the park told us about the many travelers who made the long journey here only to find Machu Picchu completely socked in for the entire day. Distant craggy tops would be the only things visible through the banks of fog, but little else. Had that happened to us, our reactions to visiting here would have been far less enthusiastic (our guide had hiked the Himalayas and encountered this; no stunning vistas but only blankets and blankets of fog in every direction, a fog which never cleared even as she descended). But the morning fog stayed low for us, actually adding to the mystique; even the evening before saw rain threatening but instead treating us to a sound show of thunder that bounced around us like a celestial roar. Perhaps it was the shaman the night before, putting on a display to seek compassion from nature and to protect us on our trip. Or perhaps it was simply a lucky roll of the dice...
Discover had a piece on the building of the site, writing this:
“We’ve scurried around, looked at every hole and every doorway, and the whole thing is beautifully planned,” says Ruth Wright, a historian, travel writer, and environmental activist who formerly served in the Colorado legislature. Ruth and her husband Ken Wright, a civil engineer, have studied Machu Picchu over some two dozen trips. It’s not a haphazard project, she says, but “a completely designed city.” In light of its location, the achievement is even more impressive. As Ken put it, “they started out with a hostile environment.” The site receives up to 80 inches of rain annually, sits atop steep landslide-prone slopes, and lies upon active fault lines. Despite these obstacles, it has survived more than 500 years of weather and earthquakes and is in remarkable condition. To top it all off, the Inca lacked many of the tools you might think would be necessary for such an undertaking. “They did not have the wheel, they did not have iron or steel, and they did not have written language,” Ken says. “It would seem impossible that they could build something like this.” ...Although the Inca had no written language, the design of these structures seems to be laid out based on a set of rules. For example, the windows are typically the length of a forearm, and the space between them two forearms. “They standardized it,” Ruth says. “You can go into the forest and find a stone building and know it’s Inca because they’re all the same.”...Much of the Inca's work on Machu Picchu, though impressive, is inconspicuous. Ken has estimated that 60 percent of the construction is underground [other archeologists put the figure higher and estimate that 80% of the structure is underground].
The article continued:
First, they located the city’s water source, a spring on the north slope of Machu Picchu Mountain -- without which there wouldn’t have been a Machu Picchu. They built a stone canal to carry perhaps 26 gallons of water per minute toward the urban center...But more important was their management of the water that, if left unmanaged, would have long since ravaged the site. “The reason that Machu Picchu has stood up over five centuries was because of good drainage,” Ken says. The terraces that line the hillsides below the city, besides adapting the slopes to agriculture, also protected them from runoff and erosion...Back in the urban sector, granite stairways and walkways doubled as a network of runoff channels, all feeding water into a main drain that discharged into the rainforest below the city...Remember that the Inca had no steel or iron tools. These blocks were hewn with bronze and stone, yet with such delicacy that you would never guess...Equally impressive, apparently, were the roofs that once covered these edifices. All the straw thatching has disappeared, but a few early western visitors documented their sophistication. “If you read the Spanish chronicles,” Lee says, “they were as admiring of the roofs as they were of the stone walls.” One observer, describing a domed roof in a different city, said it was “very reminiscent of the Pantheon at Rome.” Lee has called these “the lost half of Inca architecture.”
The often, and more-photographed peak of Huayna Picchu is a separate hike and requires an additional ticket (a good preview of the hike was beautifully captured by the British/Aussie couple, Cat & Joe on
their blog). The younger and smaller peak's name reflects that, while the "old peak" of Machu Picchu sits behind the sanctuary. Now at this point I could begin to tell you all about huts and stones aligning with solstices and equinoxes, and how the place was divided for both workers and royalty, and how the rocks grew smoother and more intricate according to the buildings' importance, and how tombs and caves were discovered there, and how Hiram Bingham "found" the place after a long trek on the the "road" (which is now the rail line). I could tell you all that except: 1) it would have no meaning if you haven't been there; and 2) even with having a guide to explain all that and with a map of the area now in front of me, I honestly can't remember much of it. Everything made perfect sense at the time, and was SO fascinating (at the time); but as with so many places rich with history and complicated in their structure (as in trying to jam history and archeology and theories and visible remnants all together...and I was taking notes, no less!), it's pretty much a jumble. And besides,
Lara K. does a much better job in providing great photos and a down-to-earth explanation for those of you thinking of heading down there (bravo to all these young people traveling the world, volunteering, and posting quality stuff...good on ya!).
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| Bus line to Machu Picchu |
That said, here are a few quick tips of mine for your future visit. 1) Machu Picchu has 9 entrances but you'll likely use just one, the main entrance (or the Sun Gate near the top of the mountain if you're coming off of the Inca trail). And that picture above of stairs which seem to descend to nowhere? That's one of the original entrances. Remember, this was a center point that could be reached from many parts of the Inca realm; and those 9 entrances may be only the ones that have been discovered so far. One nice thing our guide told us was that certain parts of the sanctuary (the parts which look like buildings falling apart and crumbled blocks) are being purposely left for future archeologists who may arrive with new technology (AI is already entering the picture). And speaking of entrances, you'll need a ticket to get in to the sanctuary (currently about $60) and your ticket is for a certain time slot (a good explanation of it all is
here); this ticket does
not include the train to get there OR the bus ride up (get ready for a long line although buses run very frequently). And speaking of those buses: the ride (in my opinion) is nowhere near as scary as we were told, the roads wider than expected and "paved" in all the turns. And that "kid" that races your bus up and down that so many earlier visitors remember?...no more. Those children were dodging school so the government put a stop to those young entrepreneurs. But when you do finally get to the entrance gate, do try and hire an official guide. It will enhance your visit 100% since most of them will bring history alive; and let's face it, you've come this far so why skimp at this point? For the price of $10 to 40 or so (if you go with a
group or a private guide), you'll walk away with an encyclopedia of information
as you are seeing it, and that alone will make your visit all the more memorable.
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| The actual Machu Picchu mountain |
My second tip is to be somewhat fit, as in your knees. The stone steps here are relatively the same size but some are quite a step up (or down) followed by a quick "normal" step, over and over. But think about it. You see the pictures; the place is packed, day after day, and our group had two gentlemen who were 80 and did just fine. But maybe a few stair stepper exercises a few weeks before you head out wouldn't hurt. And keep in mind that all of this is happening at 8000' so you may feel a tiny bit out of breath, which is a good thing. You want to take it slow and to take it all in. And did I mention, no bathrooms once inside the park (you'll easily spend 2 hours or more in there); your ticket is good for one entry and one entry only so once you're out, well, you're out. 3) No matter the time of year, the bugs are out (several bit through my long-sleeved shirt and I never saw or heard a thing). Nothing like Denali where a cluster of biting varmints follows you around; but their bites will leave you scratching for days. Worse in summer, we were told. 4) It's true about the sun. You're nearer the equator so you'll feel the heat, or maybe not the heat but the sun penetrating. It's different, as in skin-damaging different. Slap on some sunscreen and keep it coming. 5) Pray, get a shaman, or roll the dice for good weather. So many come home with great pictures (as you can see by the plethora of blogs and videos) but there are likely an equal number stuck taking cloudy or rainy-day pictures that somehow lose their appeal. So recognize that the weather is out of your control but if you happen to encounter great weather, give thanks. You were dang lucky (this is a rainy part of the mountains, as in an average of 70+ inches of rain annually). And about that water...no disposable plastic bottles inside so fill up that canteen before entering (no water fountains inside either).
Perhaps the biggest piece of advice is to just enter with the mind of a child, an adult-child. Certainly the Inca had some time on their hands, especially at night when they could see so many stars (some of their symbols are based around the
Southern Cross); but think of when or how or who was patient enough to realize that only on certain days would the stars take a certain path and that the next morning's sun would cast its light through an exact spot (the solstices). Miss that by a minute or a few minutes and the time would have passed. And then to decide that that spot was exactly where big stones should be placed. Not a few feet or inches off, but in that exact spot. Gary Fildes in his book,
A Bricklayer's Guide to the Galaxy, wrote:
Of the eighty-eight constellations, people are most likely to know the names of twelve of them...They represent the zodiac, the signs commonly associated with astrology and horoscopes. They also mark out the approximate path the Sun takes across our sky as we orbit it -- a line known as the ecliptic. As the Moon orbits the Earth, it also never strays very far from this line. The ancients noticed another special property about the ecleptic as they watched the skies over long periods. Five stars appeared not to be fixed into constellations like the rest, and would instead wander along this line. The dubbed them 'wandering stars', or asteres planetai
in Greek. It is from that phrase that we get our modern day word for these wandering stars: planets.
Perhaps the best way to think about Machu Picchu is to not think about it at all. Maybe instead of wondering how the Inca mastered all these building techniques and alignments is something we won't ever understand. Perhaps their way of thinking was something unique. One example came from Lyall Watson's
book on
how we picture wind:
Some biologist suggest that life may have borrowed the maverick capacity for replication from substances like the crystalline clays, whose regular geometric forms arise spontaneously, but go on reproducing themselves in a stable and organized way. Now, perhaps it becomes necessary to extend the chain of revolutionary circumstance and suggest that air, far from being a random catalogue of stray gasses, might in fact be a biological ensemble. Something created by, and maintained by, the biosphere for it'd own benefit. For me, seeing this place for the first time was truly something magical. And while I'll never be able to relay that special feeling to anyone, a good analogy came from Raynor Winn's first bestselling book,
The Salt Path. In the book, she and her husband (given a terminal-diagnosis) become caught in a legal snafu and find themselves homeless...so they decide to walk the 630 miles of the southwest coast of England, rough-camping as they call it but basically just barely scraping by from week to week, often going hungry and yet strangely feeling more alive. One day, they meet an elderly gent on a cliffside, he plagued with glaucoma and his eyesight rapidly failing, but still able to catch a falcon floating in the winds off the sea. He says to them: "
It's a stunning sight to remember. I come here every day I can, got to remember it, see for when I can'r see it...I'm glad she's come, she's a special thing, beautiful 'in she." After hearing that, the author reflects:
The light grew, prizing the sky and the sea apart. Had I seen enough things? When I could no longer see them, would I remember them and would the memory be enough to fill me up and make me whole? That first sight of Machu Picchu? For me, that was memory enough...
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