Machu Picchu sits high above the Urubamba
River surrounded by forested peaks. It may have
served as a royal estate managed by the lineage
of the Inca ruler Pachacuti. Walter Wust.Building Machu Picchu was an enormous undertaking, requiring large
numbers of workers to move great quantities of earth to create its terraced plaza,
where archaeologists have recorded up to 2.5 meters (almost 8 feet) of fill. An
onsite quarry provided the white granite for its walls. Carved stones, boulders,
and outcrops as well as fountains, or baths, are central to the site’s design.
Sculpted rocks flank burial caves, enhance structures or patios, or mimic the
shapes of distant mountains. The so-called Intihuatana stone (Quechua: “hitching
post of the sun”) caps a terraced platform and is aligned with sacred mountains
and the cardinal directions. The first bath in a chain of 16 spring-fed fountains
flanks a building with a curved wall known as the Torreón, which may have
served as a Sun Temple. Built over a stone outcrop and a cave graced with
elaborate stonework, the Torreón may also have been used as an observatory for
viewing the June solstice sunrise and the rise of the Pleiades, two astronomical
observations that were central to the regulation of the Inca calendar, in Cuzco.
Due to its sweeping views of distant mountain peaks, some scholars claim that
Machu Picchu served as an important central place in an elaborate cosmological
scheme embracing numerous sacred mountains (such as Salcantay, to the south)
within the region.
Some scholars suggest that Machu Picchu’s residential remains could have
housed some 750 people, while others claim that only about 300 people could
have lived there. While the site is flanked by agricultural terraces, which
protected it from erosion, the extent of terracing was insufficient to produce
enough crops to sustain its residents. Machu Picchu’s inhabitants probably relied
on foodstuffs brought in from farms on the valley bottom and neighboring
settlements. Pollen studies indicate that farmers grew maize as well as potatoes
and a type of legume. Some of Machu Picchu’s inhabitants engaged in
metalworking, as revealed by the discovery of pure tin and copper sheet, alloyed
to produce tin bronze, and cast to create tools and decorative items. Spindle
whorls and bone weaving tools point to cloth production.
Bingham and his crew discovered over 100 burial caves containing the remains
of 174 individuals. A reappraisal of these skeletal remains and their burial