There's alot to cover here visually, so I’ve broke it into two posts. Machu Pichu is the reminants of the Inca Empire. It sits at an amazing 8,000 ft altitude in the Peruvian mountains.
For most people, this is the highlight when visiting Peru. For the history of this place you can simply Wiki for details. This post isn’t meant to be a history lesson, but rather my adventure visiting this remote place.
The setting truly is astounding. You would never imagine such an elaborate city built in the 1400’s so far away from anything. And so high in the mountains!
The nearest major town is Cusco. Another high altitude city. This is the only adventure I have taken where I brought altitude sickness medication. I took it, but I’m not sure I needed it.
It was a real treat to see the animals that live here. These llamas were very common throughout the area.
This is quite a testament to their masonry skills to still see so many structures still in decent shape having weathered the elements for over 600 years!
The place is massive and requires hours to visit even casually. I had climbed the top of Machu Pichu when I first arrived. I posted on that here:
In retrospect, that was a mistake. I should have saved my energy (and arthritic back) for the archeological site itself rather than on the climb. The aerial views were great, but I came to see the structures. I likely shortened my time among the buildings as a result of my fatigue (and thirst - no water for sale inside the site).
This place is set upon levels. The significance of the levels, and indeed the place itself, is subject to conjecture. You see the Incas did not have a written language and there were no Western world historians around to record the history of the people.
Eventually the area was abandoned by the Inca tribe, perhaps in fear of the pending Spanish Conquest.
Radio carbon dating determined the area was occupied from 1420 to 1532. Not very long at all considering the amount of work that went into this place.
Exploring the different levels can be a bit tiring, but the benefit is the coolness of the mountains. It felt very comfortable there other than the altitude. The lack of oxygen up there added to the fatigue factor and made it difficult to explore for hours.
As you can see, I got a lot of great photo ops on this trip. I’ll let you enjoy them through the rest of this post and then I will continue into the next with more.
I wish the Incas had left a written history behind. This is truly a mystical place in a mystical setting. It is not easy to get to at all. Why they chose this life at this altitude just seems crazy to me.
I’ll continue more on this on the next post including the arduous task to visit this place
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