Jose Luiz Baccante, an archeologist, was brought as a guest of Abercrombie & Kent from Machu Picchu, where he works, to give us on the tour a briefing about the site that we would be shortly seeing. He had an extensive slide show to share with us, and the following represents my notes, certainly incomplete.
- Machu Picchu is a world heritage site, of which there are only four in the Americas. It consists of 60 different archeological sites and 64 monuments at current count (the list is growing). It was connected to the Inca world by roads. The Inca word for shrine is "huaca."
- Machu Picchu first appeared in a colonial document in 1796, a land document. It is believed that in 1714 a reference to Huana Picchu was made. Picchu may mean bird or the wad in your mouth from chewing coca leaves.
- In 1801, the first map of the Vilcabamba area was made. In 1874, a German engineer created a map. In 1881, another German, named Bern, may have found and looted Machu Picchu.
- Hiram Bingham, an American, led the first expedition to find Machu Picchu (by accident) -- even though he was looking for the ancient capital of Vilcabamba. He led three expeditions to the site: in 1911, then again in 1912, and then in 1914-15. An article by Bingham was published in National Geographic in 1913. About 12,000 pictures were taken on these expeditions; Peru has access to about 100. The first photo was taken at the temple. Much vegetation needed to be cut in order to photograph the site.
- Graffiti exists on the site that dates to 1902, however. It is believed that was left by a looter named Augustin Lizarraga.
- Machu Picchu was built by the Inca emperor Pachakuteq, beginning some time around 1450. It is believed there were two phases (or moments as Sr. Baccante called them) of construction.
- The site was valued by the Incas because if was surrounded by the river on three sides (among other reasons, no doubt).
- There were only about 400 permanent residents, mostly growing corn, but they would not have been able to grow enough to feed everyone.
- New sites in Peru are still being looked for. A device called Lidar is used to "look" at what is hiding under the vegetation.
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