Machu Picchu is a relatively recent discovered city located in the Andes Mountains in Peru. It was discovered in 1911 by Yale Professor Hale Bingham, who was searching for Vilcabamba, which was the undiscovered last stronghold of the Incan empire. The city is 43 miles northwest of Cuzco, completely hidden from the Urabamba River 2000 feet below.

Machu Picchu is believed to be a sacred place of the Incas used during the 1400s, and perhaps even before that time. Machu Picchu means "Old Peak" in Quechua language, and this small city believed to be used for ceremonies is remarkably well-preserved. The city is completely self-contained with agricultural terraces, temples, storage rooms, and over 150 houses.

It is believed that the Incas planted crops such as potatoes and maize here. They must have used advanced irrigation methods to reduce erosion and product enough to sustain the city. They may even have acquired products from the nearby Incan capital of Cuzco.

The buildings are architecturally amazing, carved from gray granite from the marble mountaintops. They are fitted together with such exactness that no mortar was used and even a thin knife blade cannot be inserted between the joints. Another integral part of the architecture is how the Incas constructed the stone formations into their buildings and living centers. They also carved sculptures into the rock, had water flow through stone channels, and built their temples hanging on steep precipices. These buildings have polygonal masonry, which is characteristic of the late Inca period.

According to skeletal remains, most of the people that lived in and around Machu Picchu were women, children, and priests. Some speculate that this was a training center for priests because of the initial skeletal findings of a large ratio of women to men.

Another purpose of the city may have been as an astronomical observatory. The Intihuatana stone, meaning the "hitching post of the sun," could tell the precise date of two equinoxes and other celestial times. At midday on March 21st and September 21st the sun stands directly above the pillar and creates no shadow. At this moment, the Inca priest would hold a ceremony to tie the sun to the stone to prevent it from moving northward in the sun and disappearing altogether.

These intihuatanas were believed by the Incas to be very sacred. Unfortunately, they were systematically searched for and destroyed by the Spaniards. When a stone was broken, the Incas believed that the deities of the place departed or died. Luckily, the Spaniards never found Machu Picchu, and this sacred stone and its spirits are intact at this Inca shrine. In fact, Shamanic legends claim that when a sensitive person touches his forehead to the intihuatana stone, it opens one's vision to the spirit world.

Until its discovery, few people outside the Inca population knew of Machu Picchu. Half of the Inca population died from smallpox before and during the arrival of the Spaniards. The government fell and the Inca supply lines linking the Inca social centers were destroyed. Thus, sometime around the capture of the city Cuzco by the Spaniards in the 1530s, the city fell into disuse. A few people stayed behind, avoiding undesirable visitors that continued to come after the discovery of the Incas.

Author's Note: If you want to visit this ancient city, you can book a guided tour of Machu Picchu. There are departures this month and in the near future. Machu Picchu tour

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