|
| |
| |
|
MACHU PICCHU SANCTUARY |
| |
|
 In
1981 an area of 325.92 square kilometers surrounding Machu Picchu was
declared a "Historical Sanctuary" of Peru. This area, which is not
limited to the ruins themselves, also includes the regional landscape
with its flora and fauna, highlighting the abundance of orchids.
One theory maintains that Machu Picchu was an Incan "llacta": a
settlement built up to control the economy of the conquered regions and
that it may have been built with the purpose of protecting the most
select of the Incan aristocracy in the event of an attack. Based on
research conducted by scholars such as John Rowe and Richard Burger,
most archaeologists now believe that, rather than a defensive retreat,
Machu Picchu was an estate of the Inca emperor Pachacuti. Johan Reinhard
presents evidence that the site was selected based on its position
relative to sacred landscape features, especially mountains that are in
alignment with key astronomical events.
|
| |
|
Three sectors
According to the archaeologists, the urban sector of Machu Picchu was
divided into three great districts: the Sacred District, the Popular
District, to the south, and the District of the Priests and the Nobility
(royalty zone).
 Located
in the first zone are the primary archaeological treasures: the
Intihuatana, the Temple of the Sun and the Room of the Three Windows.
These were dedicated to Inti, their sun god and greatest deity. The
Popular District, or Residential District, is the place where the lower
class people lived. It includes storage buildings and simple houses to
live in.
In the royalty area, a sector existed for the nobility: a group of
houses located in rows over a slope; the residence of the Amautas (wise
persons) was characterized by its reddish walls, and the zone of the
Ñustas (princesses) had trapezoid-shaped rooms.
The Monumental Mausoleum is a carved statue with a vaulted interior and
carved drawings. It was used for rites or sacrifices |
| |
|
Architecture
All of the construction in Machu Picchu uses the classic Inca
architectural style of polished dry-stone walls of regular shape. The
Incas were masters of this technique, called ashlar, in which blocks of
stone are cut to fit together tightly without mortar. Many junctions in
the central city are so perfect that not even a knife fits between the
stones.
 The
Incas never used the wheel in any practical manner. How they moved and
placed enormous blocks of stones is a mystery, although the general
belief is that they used hundreds of men to push the stones up inclined
planes.
The space is composed of 140 constructions including temples,
sanctuaries, parks and residences (houses with thatched roofs).
There are more than one hundred flights of stone steps – often
completely carved from a single block of granite – and a great number of
water fountains, interconnected by channels and water-drainages
perforated in the rock, designed for the original irrigation system.
Evidence has been found to suggest that the irrigation system was used
to carry water from a holy spring to each of the houses in turn. |
| |
| |
| |
|
