Facts About Machu Picchu and the Incas

Facts About Machu Picchu and the Incas

• The Inca people originated around A.D. 1150 in the Cuzco valley of what is now modern-day Peru.
• By its height in the 1520s, the Inca Empire stretched 3,500 miles from what is now modern Colombia to central Chile and also incorporated substantial portions of Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina and Peru.
• Although the Inca people only numbered about 100,000, they ruled more than 15 million people from dozens of ethnic groups.
• Roughly translated from Quechua, the language of the Inca, Machu Picchu means “ Old Mountain Peak.” It was built for Inca ruler Pachacuti more than 500 years ago.
• Machu Picchu lies in the jungle of the Urubamba Valley —known as the Sacred Valley of the Incas—in the Andes of Peru. It is about four hours by train (or a four-day walk) from the ancient Inca capital of Cuzco.
• Machu Picchu is called the “lost city” because the jungle had literally swallowed it when Yale explorer Hiram Bingham III “rediscovered” it in 1911. When the overgrown vegetation was removed, the complex of ruins was revealed.
• Machu Picchu is surrounded by high mountain peaks and rushing waters, features that were sacred to the Inca. While more than half the buildings on the site were used for religious purposes, recent research reveals Machu Picchu was a retreat or vacation spot for Inca royalty, rather than a sacred “city.” Anyone who visits Machu Picchu today will no doubt appreciate the beauty of this mountaintop retreat.
• Machu Picchu 's 150 dwellings included palaces, baths, temples and storage rooms, carefully carved from the gray granite of the Andes and filled with magnificent treasures. Many of the building stones weighed 50 tons or more, yet they were sculpted so precisely there was no need for mortar to hold them together.
• Most of the people who lived at Machu Picchu year-round were probably servants who served the Inca rulers. Metalworkers and other specialized craftspeople also lived there. The Inca ruler and his family and entourage may have spent weeks or months at a time at Machu Picchu.