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 Machu Picchu History
After the conquest of Peru by the Spanish, the
rebellious Inca Manco Capac II secretly slipped away from
Cusco in the night and retreated northwest beyond Ollantaytambo and into the depths of the jungle where he
established a town called Vilcabamba. It was from this base
that the last of the Incas attacked the Spaniards in Cusco
for the next 36 years. In 1572 the Spanish eventually lost
their patience and mounted a brutal invasion against the
Inca resistance. They attacked Vilcabamba and finally
brought the last Inca Tupac Amaru (Manco's heir and half
brother) back to Cusco in chains where he was executed in
the Plaza de Armas. Many of his potential heirs and family
were either executed or dispersed, putting to rest the Inca
dynasty for good. With time the location of the abandoned
town of Vilcabamba became forgotten to all but a few
ambiguous maps and clues left by some Spanish chroniclers.
Hiram Bingham, a doctor in philosophy and history at Yale
University, became fascinated with Inca archaeology and
stories of lost cities when he was visiting Peru in 1909
whilst retracing the footsteps of Simon Bolivar (South
America's great liberator). He returned to Peru in 1911 with
a seven man expedition sponsored by Yale University and the
National Geographical Society.
Leaving Cusco in July 1911 Bingham and his team
set out in the direction of the jungle, heading down the
Urubamba Valley. Bingham had previously spent time in Lima
reading through the many Spanish manuscripts. He was
convinced that lost cities, Inca ruins and possibly
unmentionable treasures lay somewhere in this part of Peru.
Almost immediately the group discovered a major Inca site
which they named Patallacta (also called Llactapata). This
ruin can be found at the start of the Inca Trail at the
junction of the Cusichaca and Vilcanota River. Bingham and
his companions travelled on.
On 23 July 1911, only a week into the
expedition, the group camped at Mandorpampa, a few
kilometres further along the Vilcanota River Valley than the
present day village of Aguas Calientes. By chance they got
talking to Melchor Artega, the owner of a local hacienda.
Bingham was told of some fine ruins high up in the hills on
the other side of the river and Artega was willing to take
them there. The next day it rained and only Bingham had the
enthusiasm to climb the steep side of the mountain,
accompanied by Artega.
To his surprise at the top he was greeted by
two locals, Toribio Richarte and Anacleto Alvarez, who had
been living up on the mountainside for a few years to avoid
the police and tax collectors. After a short rest the men
led Bingham to the ancient site.
"I soon found myself before the ruined walls of
buildings built with some of the finest stonework of the
Incas. It was difficult to see them as they were partially
covered over by trees and moss, the growth of centuries; but
in the dense shadow, hiding in bamboo thickets and toggled
vines, could be seen, here and there walls of white granite
ashlars most carefully cut and exquisitely fitted together
(...). I was left truly breathless."
Extract from 'The Lost City of the Incas' by
Hiram Bingham
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| A hand colored
photo of Machu Picchu 1911 |
Bingham believed that he'd stumbled across the
rebel Inca's last strong hold and that Vilcabamba had at
last been found. This 'discovery' stood unchallenged for the
next 50 years until Bingham's mistake was affirmed by Gene
Savoy in 1964, when he discovered what most people agree are
the true ruins of Vilcabamba at Espiritu Pampa, 4 or 5 days
hard trek further into the jungle. Ironically Hiram Bingham
actually found part of these ruins during his 1909
expedition, but considered them unimportant.
Having succeeded in raising sufficient
sponsorship, Bingham returned to Machu Picchu the following
year to commence the huge task of clearing the ruins of
vegetation - a job that took 3 years. During this time many
ceramics, stone objects and bones were found and taken back
to the United States. Construction of a railway began in
1913 finally reaching Aguas Calientes in 1928. The road up
to the ruins was completed in 1948 and inaugurated by
Bingham himself. In 1981 a 325 km2 area around Machu Picchu
was declared a Historical Sanctuary by the Peruvian
Government, and given the status of a World Heritage site
by UNESCO in 1983.
So if Machu Picchu wasn't the lost city of
Vilcabamba, what was it? Its location certainly wasn't known
of by the Spanish at the time of the conquest and concealing
an entire populated region from them, many of whom had
allies among the Incas, would have been impossible.
The only plausible explanation is that the
Incas, during the time of the Spanish conquest, did not know
of it either! For some reason the city and its region were
abandoned before the arrival of the conquistadors and its
memory erased even to the Incas.
Archaeologists agree that the style of Machu
Picchu's buildings is "late imperial Inca" placing it within
the reign of the Inca Pachacutec. Pachacutec was responsible
for the defeat of the Chanca invasion from the north, an
event that took place in 1438 and marked the beginning of
the great Inca expansion.
Based on our previous conclusion that Machu
Picchu was abandoned before the arrival of the Spaniards,
this leaves a space of less than 100 years for it to have
been constructed, populated, deserted and forgotten.
Although nearly all leading archaeologists agree on this
time scale it is still quite difficult to believe. The
purpose of Machu Picchu and the reason for its subsequent
abandonment is still very much a mystery and inspiration for
as many stories as there are tour guides (or guide books for
that matter).
The more recent view is that, rather than being
seen in isolation, Machu Picchu formed the ceremonial and
possibly administrative centre of a large and populous
region. The many trails leading to Machu Picchu tend to
support this. Recent evidence presented by the archaeologist
J.H.Rowe suggest that Machu Picchu was simply built as a
'royal estate' for the Inca Pachacutec and populated by his
own ayllu or family clan. The location was probably chosen
for its unique position surrounded by the jungle and the
important mountains of Salkantay, Pumasillo and Veronica,
and overlooking the Vilcanota River, a position which in the
Inca religion would have been considered sacred. In fact the
Inca Trail leading to Machu Picchu may well have been
considered not just a road, but a route of pilgrimage to
this sacred centre.
Machu Picchu could also have served several
secondary purposes at once, including a look-out post
guarding the route to Cusco from the Antisuyo or Amazon
Basin, or as a protected source of coca used in every aspect
of Inca religion including its use in sacrifice, divination
and medicine.
Evidence suggests that Machu Picchu, with its
200 or so buildings, had a permanent population of about
1000 people.
The abandonment of Machu Picchu may simply be
explained by the death of Pachacutec and the construction of
a new 'royal estate' for the next Inca, as was the custom.
Other scholars suggest that the city's water supply may have
dried up.
source:
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