Machu Picchu, Peru

The City Lost in the Mystery of the Incas


A Lost and Found City
The most famous view of the city that the Incas will have abandoned at the time of the Hispanic conquest of the Inca Empire.
in quechua costumes
Peruvian visitor to Machu Picchu appreciates the surrounding Andean scenery in colorful traditional costumes.
Architecture & Nature
A tree sprouts from one of the terraces on which the Inca urbanism of the citadel, built in the XNUMXth century, is located.
local fauna
Lamas occupy a terrace on a slope opposite the main peaks of the Machu Picchu citadel.
inca ruins
Detail of one of the solid structures on which the city was based, made of carved stones and perfectly fitted together by the Inca workers.
Andean reading
Visitor reads with a view of one of the precipices that overlooks the citadel of Machu Picchu, which Hiram Bingham considered one of the best defended places by nature in that region of Peru.
Peruvian queue
Visitors climb one of Machu Picchu's long staircases, on their way to a high point in the ruins complex.
Peruvian fashion
Peruvian friends of Machu Picchu protect themselves from the sun under peculiar hats.
The Sacred Valley
Green scenery around the Urubamba River at the base of the mountains that welcomed the Inca city.
Type of housing ruins
Structures of old homes in Machu Picchu with small tufts of moisture in the background.
Camelid Contrast
Lamas can be seen on one of the terraces created at Machu Picchu by the city's Inca founders.
An Inca Avenue
A path bordering Machu Picchu, conquered the lush hillside and paved with carved stone
In rest
Visitors rest from the long, exhausting walks required by the visit of Machu Picchu
As we wander around Machu Picchu, we find meaning in the most accepted explanations for its foundation and abandonment. But whenever the complex is closed, the ruins are left to their enigmas.

In two days of gradual habituation to the altitude, the colonial grandeur of Cusco once again impressed us, but the first meters of the Santa Ana Railway clashed.

Instead of gliding dignified and fluid, the composition hiccuped. It would soon stop and reverse gears, something that was repeated a few more times.

The strange phenomenon that the residents and workers of PeruRail dubbed the “zigzag” allowed the convoy to conquer the steep slope on the outskirts of the city. And, shortly thereafter, face the descent to the sacred valley of the Urubamba River.

The Sacred Valley

Green scenery around the Urubamba River at the base of the mountains that welcomed the Inca city.

The Stunning Cinematic Approach of Werner Herzog

We had admired, for the first time, those lush stops, in the epic opening plans of “Aguirre, the Wrath of the Gods".

In the film, a detachment of soldiers and missionaries led by Gonçalo Pizarro, supported by native porters, mules and lamas snakes subsumed in the mist by treacherous tracks embedded in the slope above the furious bed of the Urubamba.

Camelid Contrast

Lamas can be seen on one of the terraces created at Machu Picchu by the city's Inca founders.

Shortly after, Pizarro surrendered to the difficulties of the land and decreed the division of the entourage. Part of the one that goes down the river finds itself in trouble in its rapids and eddies.

Inspired by the achievements of Hernán Cortéz, Don Lope de Aguirre (represented by the irascible Klaus Kinski, who would receive, as a cachet, a third of the budget for the feature film) soon snatched the group's leadership. Before long, he reveals his unhealthy obsession with El Dorado.

On the days when we were exploring the tropical zone of Ucayali, El Dorado was, for all passengers on board, another.

Andean reading

Visitor reads with a view of one of the precipices that overlooks the citadel of Machu Picchu, which Hiram Bingham considered one of the best defended places by nature in that region of Peru.

The Final Station of Aguas Calientes, at the Base of the Mysterious City of Machu Picchu

Every minute of the journey made it more real. The train travels the last few hundred meters between the dense jungle and the Urubamba. It drops us off at the Águas Calientes station, from where we'll continue by bus to the intermediate heights (2.430m) of the Andean mountain range.

We are just two out of several thousand visitors ascending that mountain with an old woman's face, the Inca meaning of the term Machu Picchu and – so many adepts defend – the subliminal look of the relief.

The natives of the area had known, for a long time, of the existence of the ruins.

There are those who say, by the way, that instead of being isolated and remote, the citadel was accessible by different paths that connected it to small indigenous family nuclei.

The European Explorers to Whom the Natives Revealed Machu Picchu

In addition to these, it is also possible that at least two British missionaries, a German engineer, a fellow countryman who, in 1860, had bought land in the vicinity, as well as three explorers from Cusco: Enrique Palma, Gabino Sánchez and Agustín Lizárraga, already knew the place.

Whether or not his credit will ever prove itself (and even those of many others) it was Hiram Bingham, a historian, professor, explorer, and later Hawaii-born American senator, who was most dedicated to studying Machu Picchu and released it to the world.

It was also Bingham who sparked the countless easy incursions that the old town now hosts, day after day.

in quechua costumes

Peruvian visitor to Machu Picchu appreciates the surrounding Andean scenery in colorful traditional costumes.

On July 24, 1911, Melchor Arteaga, an indigenous Bingham considered “much better than usual” saw the stranger wandering around the thatched hut he kept on his plantation in Mandor Pampa.

Arteaga sold grass, pasture and alcoholic beverages to anyone who passed by. Aware of the foreigner's probable interest in historical remains, eager to earn some extra money, he offered to show him some ruins he knew for a mere 50 cents a day.

Bingham immediately accepted the proposal. The next day, without major difficulties, he faced the abandoned city.

A Lost and Found City

The most famous view of the city that the Incas will have abandoned at the time of the Hispanic conquest of the Inca Empire

The find will certainly have delighted you. The explorer never had, however, the privilege of admiring it completely rebuilt, as we do in absolute amazement, after climbing to the hut of the Watchers of the Funerary Stone, where it is believed that the deceased Inca nobles were mummified.

From there, among llamas and haughty alpacas, we enjoy the classic and more comprehensive view of Machu Picchu.

local fauna

Lamas occupy a terrace on a slope opposite the main peaks of the Machu Picchu citadel.

Theories That Still Haven't Explained Machu Picchu

It is at that high point that we try to intuit the reason for being of such a majestic building. We know that the most popular thesis explains it, based on a 1438th century Hispanic document, as a mountain retreat of the Inca emperors Pachacutec Inca Yupanqui and Tupac Inca Yupanqui, living between 1493 and XNUMX.

It would have been built around 1450, at the height of the Inca Empire.

It was abandoned to its fate a century later, when the Spanish conquerors seized the indigenous territories, although it is believed that they never discovered the location of Machu Picchu.

An Inca Avenue

A path bordering Machu Picchu, conquered the lush hillside and paved with carved stone

At first, Bingham announced that it was Vilcabamba la Vieja, the last city from which the last Inca rulers resisted the Spanish conquest during the XNUMXth century.

Other archaeologists would later discover that this would have been, in fact, Espíritu Pampa, 130 km west of Cusco.

After a thorough study of the ruins, human bones and other elements, Bingham argued, then, that Machu Picchu had emerged as a kind of nursery of the “Inca Virgins of the Sun” a holy order of women dedicated to the god Inti. It would come, however, to prove that many of the bones were, after all, male.

An alternative theory by archaeologist and anthropologist Johan Reinhardt argues that the city's presence in such a remote place was due to the Incas considering the Urubamba River and the surrounding landscape to be sacred.

Architecture & Nature

A tree sprouts from one of the terraces on which the Inca urbanism of the citadel, built in the XNUMXth century, is located.

And because they found that sunrise and sunset, on the equinoxes and solstices, when viewed from certain points, lined up with the mountains of Machu Picchu.

Now, in the image of the river, the mountains had great religious significance for natives.

A Hasty and Failing Conquest of Pico Huayna Picchu

After passing through the doors of the Temple of the Sun, the Holy Square, the Temples of the Three Windows and the Main Temple, we investigated the House of the High Priest.

Then, we went up to the Intihuatana sanctuary, from where the Inca astronomers followed the “movements” of the sun, predicting the solstices and other key positions of the star.

We also decided to ascend to the peak of Huayna Picchu, from where a supreme view of the ruins and surrounding scenery was guaranteed.

Peruvian queue

Visitors climb one of Machu Picchu's long staircases, on their way to a high point in the ruins complex.

Even if the morphology of this sharp ridge frightens any casual mountaineer, we soon realized that the only serious problem we would face was having to conquer it against the clock because the authorities closed the trail long before the complex in general.

Okay, with our legs long overheated, we reached the summit in 45 minutes.

We dedicated 15 or 20 additional ones to recovering our violated breath, to contemplating the citadel at the irregular foothills and the successive slopes of the verdant mountain range where the Incas placed it.

Type of housing ruins

Structures of old homes in Machu Picchu with small tufts of moisture in the background.

It is after the time limit that we descend, at an obvious excess of speed, along the same path of Andean goats. Halfway through the route, we return to pass through a tight segment, kept in pure vertigo between a protruding rock wall and an abyss without an apparent end.

There, Sara lets herself be intimidated. Leaning too far against the cliff and tripping over a small slab detached from the ground. When he lands, he has his face on the threshold between life and death and contemplates the precipice above the sacred valley.

Fate or the Inca gods wanted the rest of his body to be supported by the meager surface of the walkway.

We don't even have time to recover from the scare.

Once our mind had been remedied and some small scratches had been blown, we continued the race course.

We are the last to catch the last bus but we still get off without falling towards the always furious Urubamba.

Big Zimbabwe

Great Zimbabwe, Endless Mystery

Between the 1500th and XNUMXth centuries, Bantu peoples built what became the largest medieval city in sub-Saharan Africa. From XNUMX onwards, with the passage of the first Portuguese explorers arriving from Mozambique, the city was already in decline. Its ruins, which inspired the name of the present-day Zimbabwean nation, have many unanswered questions.  
luxor, Egypt

From Luxor to Thebes: Journey to Ancient Egypt

Thebes was raised as the new supreme capital of the Egyptian Empire, the seat of Amon, the God of Gods. Modern Luxor inherited the Temple of Karnak and its sumptuousness. Between one and the other flow the sacred Nile and millennia of dazzling history.
Tulum, Mexico

The Most Caribbean of the Mayan Ruins

Built by the sea as an exceptional outpost decisive for the prosperity of the Mayan nation, Tulum was one of its last cities to succumb to Hispanic occupation. At the end of the XNUMXth century, its inhabitants abandoned it to time and to an impeccable coastline of the Yucatan peninsula.

Hampi, India

Voyage to the Ancient Kingdom of Bisnaga

In 1565, the Hindu empire of Vijayanagar succumbed to enemy attacks. 45 years before, he had already been the victim of the Portugueseization of his name by two Portuguese adventurers who revealed him to the West.

Rapa Nui - Easter Island, Chile

Under the Moais Watchful Eye

Rapa Nui was discovered by Europeans on Easter Day 1722. But if the Christian name Easter Island makes sense, the civilization that colonized it by observant moais remains shrouded in mystery.
PN Tayrona, Colombia

Who Protects the Guardians of the World?

The natives of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta believe that their mission is to save the Cosmos from the “Younger Brothers”, which are us. But the real question seems to be, "Who protects them?"
Ho Chi Minh a of Angkor, Cambodia

The Crooked Path to Angkor

From Vietnam onwards, Cambodia's crumbling roads and minefields take us back to the years of Khmer Rouge terror. We survive and are rewarded with the vision of the greatest religious temple
Bagan, Myanmar

The Plain of Pagodas, Temples and other Heavenly Redemptions

Burmese religiosity has always been based on a commitment to redemption. In Bagan, wealthy and fearful believers continue to erect pagodas in hopes of winning the benevolence of the gods.
Yucatan, Mexico

The End of the End of the World

The announced day passed but the End of the World insisted on not arriving. In Central America, today's Mayans watched and put up with incredulity all the hysteria surrounding their calendar.
Believers greet each other in the Bukhara region.
City
Bukhara, Uzbequistan

Among the Minarets of Old Turkestan

Situated on the ancient Silk Road, Bukhara has developed for at least two thousand years as an essential commercial, cultural and religious hub in Central Asia. It was Buddhist and then Muslim. It was part of the great Arab empire and that of Genghis Khan, the Turko-Mongol kingdoms and the Soviet Union, until it settled in the still young and peculiar Uzbekistan.
Host Wezi points out something in the distance
Beach
Cobue; Nkwichi Lodge, Mozambique

The Hidden Mozambique of the Creaking Sands

During a tour from the bottom to the top of Lake Malawi, we find ourselves on the island of Likoma, an hour by boat from Nkwichi Lodge, the solitary base of this inland coast of Mozambique. On the Mozambican side, the lake is known as Niassa. Whatever its name, there we discover some of the most stunning and unspoilt scenery in south-east Africa.
Esteros del Iberá, Pantanal Argentina, Alligator
safari
Iberá Wetlands, Argentina

The Pantanal of the Pampas

On the world map, south of the famous brazilian wetland, a little-known flooded region appears, but almost as vast and rich in biodiversity. the Guarani expression Y bera defines it as “shining waters”. The adjective fits more than its strong luminance.
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 5th - Ngawal a BragaNepal

Towards the Nepalese Braga

We spent another morning of glorious weather discovering Ngawal. There is a short journey towards Manang, the main town on the way to the zenith of the Annapurna circuit. We stayed for Braga (Braka). The hamlet would soon prove to be one of its most unforgettable places.
Music Theater and Exhibition Hall, Tbilisi, Georgia
Architecture & Design
Tbilisi, Georgia

Georgia still Perfumed by the Rose Revolution

In 2003, a popular political uprising made the sphere of power in Georgia tilt from East to West. Since then, the capital Tbilisi has not renounced its centuries of Soviet history, nor the revolutionary assumption of integrating into Europe. When we visit, we are dazzled by the fascinating mix of their past lives.
Aventura
Volcanoes

Mountains of Fire

More or less prominent ruptures in the earth's crust, volcanoes can prove to be as exuberant as they are capricious. Some of its eruptions are gentle, others prove annihilating.
Military Religious, Wailing Wall, IDF Flag Oath, Jerusalem, Israel
Ceremonies and Festivities
Jerusalem, Israel

A Festive Wailing Wall

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Panorama of the Licungo valley and its tea plantation
Cities
Gurué, Mozambique, Part 2

In Gurué, Among Tea Slopes

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Cocoa, Chocolate, Sao Tome Principe, Agua Izé farm
Lunch time
São Tomé and Principe

Cocoa Roças, Corallo and the Chocolate Factory

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Treasures, Las Vegas, Nevada, City of Sin and Forgiveness
Culture
Las Vegas, USA

Where sin is always forgiven

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combat arbiter, cockfighting, philippines
Sport
Philippines

When Only Cock Fights Wake Up the Philippines

Banned in much of the First World, cockfighting thrives in the Philippines where they move millions of people and pesos. Despite its eternal problems, it is the sabong that most stimulates the nation.
Plane landing, Maho beach, Sint Maarten
Traveling
Maho Beach, Sint Maarten

The Jet-powered Caribbean Beach

At first glance, Princess Juliana International Airport appears to be just another one in the vast Caribbean. Successive landings skimming Maho beach that precedes its runway, jet take-offs that distort the faces of bathers and project them into the sea, make it a special case.
Camel Racing, Desert Festival, Sam Sam Dunes, Rajasthan, India
Ethnic
Jaisalmer, India

There's a Feast in the Thar Desert

As soon as the short winter breaks, Jaisalmer indulges in parades, camel races, and turban and mustache competitions. Its walls, alleys and surrounding dunes take on more color than ever. During the three days of the event, natives and outsiders watch, dazzled, as the vast and inhospitable Thar finally shines through.
portfolio, Got2Globe, Travel photography, images, best photographs, travel photos, world, Earth
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Portfolio Got2globe

The Best in the World – Got2Globe Portfolio

History
São Nicolau, Cape Verde

Photography of Nha Terra São Nicolau

The voice of the late Cesária Verde crystallized the feeling of Cape Verdeans who were forced to leave their island. who visits São Nicolau or, wherever it may be, admires images that illustrate it well, understands why its people proudly and forever call it their land.
Dominica, Soufriére and Scotts Head, island background
Islands
Soufriere e Scotts Head, Dominica

The Life That Hangs from Nature's Caribbean Island

It has the reputation of being the wildest island in the Caribbean and, having reached its bottom, we continue to confirm it. From Soufriére to the inhabited southern edge of Scotts Head, Dominica remains extreme and difficult to tame.
Masked couple for the Kitacon convention.
Winter White
Kemi, Finland

An Unconventional Finland

The authorities themselves describe Kemi as “a small, slightly crazy town in northern Finland”. When you visit, you find yourself in a Lapland that is not in keeping with the traditional ways of the region.
Lake Manyara, National Park, Ernest Hemingway, Giraffes
Literature
Lake Manyara NP, Tanzania

Hemingway's Favorite Africa

Situated on the western edge of the Rift Valley, Lake Manyara National Park is one of the smallest but charming and richest in Europe. wild life of Tanzania. In 1933, between hunting and literary discussions, Ernest Hemingway dedicated a month of his troubled life to him. He narrated those adventurous safari days in “The Green Hills of Africa".
São Tomé Ilha, São Tomé and Principe, North, Roça Água Funda
Nature
São Tomé, São Tomé and Principe

Through the Tropical Top of São Tomé

With the homonymous capital behind us, we set out to discover the reality of the Agostinho Neto farm. From there, we take the island's coastal road. When the asphalt finally yields to the jungle, São Tomé had confirmed itself at the top of the most dazzling African islands.
Sheki, Autumn in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Autumn Homes
Autumn
Sheki, Azerbaijan

autumn in the caucasus

Lost among the snowy mountains that separate Europe from Asia, Sheki is one of Azerbaijan's most iconic towns. Its largely silky history includes periods of great harshness. When we visited it, autumn pastels added color to a peculiar post-Soviet and Muslim life.
Tsitsikamma National Park
Natural Parks
Garden Route, South Africa

The Garden Coast of South Africa

Extending over more than 200km of natural coastline, the Garden Route zigzags through forests, beaches, lakes, gorges and splendid natural parks. We travel from east to west, along the dramatic bottoms of the African continent.
Intha rowers on a channel of Lake Inlé
UNESCO World Heritage
Inle Lake, Myanmar

The Dazzling Lakustrine Burma

With an area of ​​116km2, Inle Lake is the second largest lake in Myanmar. It's much more than that. The ethnic diversity of its population, the profusion of Buddhist temples and the exoticism of local life make it an unmissable stronghold of Southeast Asia.
Characters
Look-alikes, Actors and Extras

Make-believe stars

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Bather rescue in Boucan Canot, Reunion Island
Beaches
Reunion Island

The Bathing Melodrama of Reunion

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Armenia Cradle Christianity, Mount Aratat
Religion
Armenia

The Cradle of the Official Christianity

Just 268 years after Jesus' death, a nation will have become the first to accept the Christian faith by royal decree. This nation still preserves its own Apostolic Church and some of the oldest Christian temples in the world. Traveling through the Caucasus, we visit them in the footsteps of Gregory the Illuminator, the patriarch who inspires Armenia's spiritual life.
Back in the sun. San Francisco Cable Cars, Life Ups and Downs
On Rails
San Francisco, USA

San Francisco Cable Cars: A Life of Highs and Lows

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Busy intersection of Tokyo, Japan
Society
Tokyo, Japan

The Endless Night of the Rising Sun Capital

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Casario, uptown, Fianarantsoa, ​​Madagascar
Daily life
Fianarantsoa, Madagascar

The Malagasy City of Good Education

Fianarantsoa was founded in 1831 by Ranavalona Iª, a queen of the then predominant Merina ethnic group. Ranavalona Iª was seen by European contemporaries as isolationist, tyrant and cruel. The monarch's reputation aside, when we enter it, its old southern capital remains as the academic, intellectual and religious center of Madagascar.
Serengeti, Great Savannah Migration, Tanzania, wildebeest on river
Wildlife
Serengeti NP, Tanzania

The Great Migration of the Endless Savanna

In these prairies that the Masai people say syringet (run forever), millions of wildebeests and other herbivores chase the rains. For predators, their arrival and that of the monsoon are the same salvation.
Full Dog Mushing
Scenic Flights
Seward, Alaska

The Alaskan Dog Mushing Summer

It's almost 30 degrees and the glaciers are melting. In Alaska, entrepreneurs have little time to get rich. Until the end of August, dog mushing cannot stop.