- Inca Law -
Don't lie. Don't steal. Don't be lazy.
I wanted to start this post with the three tenets of Incan law, because 1) I like them, and 2) they actually help set the stage for how Machu Picchu and the other glories of the Incan empire were made possible. (Especially the "don't be lazy" part.)
To be honest, I didn't really know what the big hoopla was over Machu Picchu before I got there. As fascinated as I am by history, I haven't been too motivated to explore the many ruins in the Sacred Valley, because I've just had a feeling I wouldn't think it's that cool unless I had a lot of context for what I was looking at. Cuz if you don't know the historical context for the ruins, all you're seeing are a bunch of stone walls, which is meh. Knowing this, I made sure to educate myself about Machu Picchu as much as time allowed before I got there. I knew I'd regret it if I missed seeing the most famous ruins in the world, but I knew I couldn't just show up and automatically be blown away; I wanted to really appreciate what exactly it is (as much as we currently understand, anyway). At the very least, though, I figured anything built that high in the mountains will have a view worth experiencing.
To get to Machu Picchu, we (Shelly, Raul, and I) took a taxi from Taray to Otallaytambo, and then a train from Ottallaytambo to Aguas Calientes (I LOVE THE TRAIN!) Aguas Calientes is the town at the bottom of the Machu Picchu mountain where everyone stays the night before getting up at 5am to get in line for the MP bus to the top. Here's a shot of Aguas Calientes: a very small, but lively and charming town that had a river running through the middle of it (hot springs at the top, but we didn't have time to enjoy those):
Machu Picchu: Some Context
The historical facts/information in this post were collected mostly from the Casa Concha museum in Cusco
(a museum dedicated to Machu Picchu), as well as tidbits from our Machu Picchu tour guide, Victor.
The Casa Concha museum included several color photographs from the expedition, taken in 1911. Next to the photogaphs, it was always noted who had painted the glass slide; all "color" photographs taken at that time were actually taken in black and white and then had to be hand-painted as glass slides before they could printed in color. I thought that was pretty impressive -- you can't really tell they are painted unless you look really hard.
Machu Picchu -- which means "Old Mountain" in Quechua, the language of the Incas (still spoken by about half of Peru's population, according to something I think I read somewhere recently) -- is one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
During the Spaniards' conquest of the Incan empire, they remained completely oblivious to this small getaway city built on top of a mountain, because duh...why would anyone think to look for some kind of Incan Empire Special Bonus Town built 2,430 meters high on a mountain? So it just sat there, not being used once the Incas no longer had the freedom/were alive to use it, getting covered in mountain vegetation from the 1500s through the 1800s, until it was finally "scientifically discovered" in 1911. The one reason it might have been nice if the Spaniards had known about it is that they could have asked what it was for, and then that wouldn't be a mystery still. Then again, if they'd known about it, it probably wouldn't exist in its current state. Probably for the best to maintain what's left of the original city and deal with some unanswered questions than to know all the details about "this one Incan city that used to be on top of a mountain until the Spaniards destroyed it and now there's nothing to see," ya know?
A student from Yale, Hiram Bingham, was the one to finally "discover" MP in 1911. (I have to put that in quotes because the locals who lived around the mountain were well aware of its existence for a long time.) Bingham was actually on an expedition intended to discover the "lost city of the Incas" of Vilcabamba at the time; no one was looking for Machu Picchu because no one knew it existed. When Bingham's group got to the general area and requested assistance from the locals to find it ("it" being Vilcabamba), a farmer's child was selected to be their guide up the Inca trail, assuming that this "lost city of the Incas" place they were looking for was Machu Picchu. I thought the fact they sent a child to lead the team up the mountain was amusing, because if you're sending a child to do something, I assume that it is perceived as 1) not that difficult, and 2) not that important (no offense, kids). I wonder how that kid reacted when they finally reached Machu Picchu and the explorers lost their shit over it.
Most archaeologists believe that MP was built under the direction of the Inca emperor Pachacuti, as a royal retreat for when he needed to get away from the capital. Another theory is that it was a university, and there were a couple more theories that Victor mentioned, but the "royal getaway" one seems to make the most sense. But if that was the case, why did Pachacuti need to have his retreat spot so high atop a mountain, you may wonder? Seems a bit inconvenient, no? Well, having it up so high preserved and reinforced his "divine kinship" as a descendent from the Sun God. Just trying to be close to family, that's all.
Of course, when the emperor goes on vacation, he needs his posse of priests, blacksmiths, jewelers, hunters, brewers, etc. In its heyday, MP would have up to 600 inhabitants during the dry season (May to September). People lived there and took care of the city's upkeep year round, though - not just while the emperor was visiting.
One of the primary purposes of MP was feasting, which centered around a special drink -- chicha de maize (maize = corn) -- rather than a special dish. Chicha (which I drank in Lima but it did not taste alcoholic at all...) is made with ground and boiled sprouted maize kernels mixed with chewed maize mash in boiling water. Evidently, human saliva has enzymes in it that produce fermentation, and the fermentation process lasts a few days to get to the desired alcoholic strength. This sounds like a pretty simple recipe... I hope at least one of you will try home chewing/brewing some chicha and let me know how it turns out!
The main temple in MP is called the Temple of Three Windows. The Three Windows are aligned perfectly to let June solstice sunrise come right in at a perfect angle, and they also serve as a reference to an Incan creation myth. I tried looking up what exactly the creation myth was, but I couldn't find an abridged version (the long versions didn't hold my interest) and then I got distracted by other things.... Also, when I asked our tour guide about the myth associated with the Temple of the Three Windows, he said "meh, that's one theory. It's also just as likely that the Incas just liked using patterns of threes in their architecture as well as other areas of life." For example, they framed their worldview with three dimensions: the heavens (represented by a condor), the earth (represented by a puma), and the underworld (represented by a snake). In any case, this temple had three windows and was named accordingly.
Another important temple in MP is the Temple of the Sun. Depending on the season, the sun would rise at slightly different angles, so the Incas could keep track of what time of year they were in by which window the sunlight came through most directly. The mound of stone in the middle of this temple was an altar of some kind.
You may have noticed in photos of MP how they terraced the hillsides all over the place ("terrace" can be a verb, right?). Shaping the land into levels in this way with stone wall support had several purposes:
1) it prevented landslides
2) the flat parts of the terraces were used to grow food crops (primarily maize, potatoes, and beans)
3) it stabilized the fertile soil
Developing an irrigation system for the crops grown at MP was unnecessary due to ample rainfall. For drinking water, however, they had 16 carved stone fountains.
I am still blown away by the fact that the Incas accomplished all they did without two key inventions:
1) Writing
(All messages and communications -- even those sent by people running relay-style down the Inca trail to deliver messages throughout the empire -- were oral)
2) The wheel
Without the wheel, THIS IS HOW THEY MOVED THE HUGE STONES that they used for building everything in Machu Picchu and elsewhere (see illustration below). I can't get over how tedious this must have been; people must have been designated to move those logs from the back to the front the entire time to keep things rolling continuously, or they just lined the track with hundreds of logs. Either way, I'm impressed at what the Incas accomplished without any wheels, but I am also judging them a little for not figuring out how to make a wheel. Like, c'mon guys... you are so close! Just stick circles onto the ends of those logs and your lives will become SO. MUCH. EASIER.
This is just a photo of some windows that were impeccably well-aligned between several houses. I like to imagine people used these to carry a quick conversation with someone two or three houses away without needing to step outside.
These "espejos de agua" (mirrors of water) were used to observe the stars at night (looking down at a reflection of the sky is easier on the neck than looking up at it). I bet it was also easier to point out specific constellations to each other when you're looking at a "sky" that is about a meter wide instead of, you know, infinitely wide.
The bottom half of this wall was built by skilled Incas. The top half was built by people who Victor, our guide, called "the incapables" (either less-skilled Incas, or non-Incas who tried to restore the wall to its full height after its discovery). The difference in quality and aesthetic appeal is pretty astounding.
Here we have an example of how the Incas incorporated circular stones into the walls of their buildings so that they had something to which they could anchor their thatched roofs.
More miscellaneous photos from Machu Picchu:
So that's Machu Picchu, but there's a lot more about the Incas to be fascinated by than just this long-lost, highly elevated royal retreat spot.
Inca Culture Fun Facts
The Incas used two separate calendars: one based on the sun to track the yearly cycle, and one based on the cycles of the moon and stars.
They used something called a "quipu" to track quantities of things: how many people lived where, quantities of different crops, textiles, metals, etc. they had. The quipu is a series of ropes, and the knots in the ropes represent different amounts (100s, 10s, 1s, etc.) depending on where on the rope the knot was. The colors of the ropes would be use to distinguish what was being counted (e.g. red for people, blue for corn, etc.). It looks like this:
They valued textiles more than gold or silver.
Incas preferred an elongated skull shape, and would shape the skulls of infants in this way when they were still soft and moldable (you may find it reassuring, as I did, that this didn't cause any damage to the brain). However, the practice was outlawed by the Spanish who, I guess, were not into that look. I saw one of these elongated skulls in the museum, and at first it does look a bit bizarre. At the same time, it totally reminded me of the way women will style their hair to have huge bumps in the back, a la Amy Winehouse (see below) -- and I LOVE that look (although the hairstyle seems too time-consuming for me to ever wear it myself).
