Machu Picchu, Peru

During a three week tour of South America in 2002, Vee and I saw the legendary Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu was inacessible until the discovery of the Inca Trail in the 1940s and even today it is only accessible by train or foot. The whole area is semi-tropical because it is 3,000 ft (900 metres) lower than Cuzco. We travelled by train from Cusco to Aguas Calientes. Here a bus took us up the private road which snakes up the very steep mountain-side to Machu Picchu itself.

Maccu Picchu (Old Peak) is the name of the mountain from which one looks down on the ruins, while the mountain which looms behind them is called Huayna Picchu (Young Peak). The location was revealed to the outside world by the American explorer Hiram Bingham who came across the site in 1911 while actually searching for the last refuge of the Incas at Vilcabamba.

We do not know exactly when the buildings were constructed, but we believe that the first buildings can be attributed to Inca Pachacuti. Equally we do not know how they engineered the stepped and ordered geometry of precisely keyed polygonal blocks and trapezoidal openings. Finally we do not know why the city was abandoned. The three main theories are that there was an invasion from the jungle, there was yellow fever or malaria, or there was a major fire caused by lightning.

Much of the reconstruction is based on Bingham's ideas of how the Incas lived, but some of it is guesswork and some of it is wrong (for instance, the Incas did not have windows in their buildings). Nevertheless, it is a really inspiring place. There is the Temple of the Moon, the Temple of the Sun, the Temple of the Three Windows, and the intiwatana or hitching post of the sun.

There are three trails to be walked (or rather climbed) at Machu Picchu. One leads to the top of Huayna Picchu, but we were warned that this is a really difficult climb with a vertiginous conclusion and we did not have the inclination (sorry about the pun!) for this. We itinially took the trail to the Puente Inke (Inca Bridge). This was challenging enough, with some really precipitous edges.


We stayed the night at the Sanctuary Lodge hotel, the only hotel at the site. Next day, we were up early to see the sun rising over Machu Picchu. It was too overcast for colours, but it was thrilling to see the first rays stream down the mountainside to illuminate the ruins. We then took the other more accessible trail, that up to the Intipunktu (Sun Gate). This was a longer and steeper climb than the trail to the Inca Bridge, but along the whole route there were fabulous views and the scene from the Sun Gate itself was inspirational.