Machu Picchu - Sample Research Paper

Machu Picchu, which translates from an ancient South American indigenous language as “old peak” is the ruin of a city high in the mountains of Peru. It is associated with the Inca civilization and often called the “lost city of the Incas”. Though obviously inhabited in ancient times, Machu Picchu is a relatively recent archeological find because it had been forgotten by all except indigenous local peoples. It was rediscovered around the turn of the twentieth century. Though the site was originally thought to be purely religious in nature, recent archeological finds point to the idea of its being a resort: a palace and surrounding compound, including temples, for Incan rulers. About twelve hundred people probably inhabited the site at any one time (Wikipedia).

Machu Picchu is a large archeological site comprised of many structures. Though ideas as to what exactly its function or place in Inca society was tend to vary, current archeological thought says that Machu Picchu is divided into three main areas or districts: The Sacred District, so-called because it contains several temples, the Popular District, and the Royalty District, where it is thought that priests and nobility resided. The city was likely built in the 15th century by the Emperor Pachacutec, and abandoned when the Spanish missionaries in the area brought an outbreak of smallpox that would likely have killed off much of Machu Picchu’s population.

All of the more than one hundred and forty buildings in the districts are made using the same architecture, a distinctive technique that helped researchers conclusively identify the site as Incan. The buildings are all made of stone, tightly fit together without any mortar, which is classic Inca style. The mystery is how the Incans managed to do this, since we have no evidence that they used the wheel: how did they move the giant blocks? The site also features many stone staircases, some carved right into the sides of mountains.

How did Machu Picchu remain undiscovered by Western civilization for so long? Part of the answer lies in the fact that the city, nestled in mountains, is impossible to see from below. Although the site covers nearly five miles and is made up of over a hundred buildings, researchers didn’t find it until 1911, when a team from Yale University started to study it (although some “sightings” or other discoveries of the site, none of which led to any concerted research effort, were reported before 1911) (Hennessey 1).

Researchers have since discovered the mummified bodies of several men and women, though original discoveries of more women than men led to the theory that the site might have been a training place for priestesses. The discovery of more male bones put the lie to this theory, and the site is now considered to have been a palace, albeit one equipped for religious observance. It contains several temples, including the Temple of the Sun, and an astronomical observatory containing the intihuatana, a column of stone said to be an example of the most sacred objects of the Inca. Legends say that when touching this column of stone, a priest or priestess’ mind was opened to the gods and visions of the future or past could be forthcoming. The name of the object, which translates to “tying the sun”, refers to a yearly ceremony that was performed around the time of the winter solstice, in which a priest would symbolically use the pole as a hitching post to prevent the sun--being up, of course, for shorter and shorter times each day--from disappearing. This is one of the rare surviving examples of an intihuatana, because most were destroyed by Spanish conquistadores and missionaries trying to convert Incan civilization to Catholicism. It is assumed that the Spanish never found Machu Picchu, or they would have destroyed it as well. The site also contains what may be a royal tomb.

Another interesting feature of Machu Picchu is the evidence that it was a farming site. Because of its location deep in the remote mountains, the irrigation techniques that had to be used to make the land viable rival sophisticated techniques used today (sacred sites.org). This fact, along with the advanced architecture and astronomical records and charts found, shows that the Inca were an extremely advanced civilization.

Today, Machu Picchu is a protected site as well as a travel destination. Tourists can hike up to the site, still as much of a challenge with modern technology as it must have been for the ancient Inca themselves. One can visit the thatched huts (some with red walls, denoting that intellectuals or wise men lived there), the temples, and the parks, marveling at the technological expertise they must have taken to produce. Because the area around Machu Picchu became a protected historical site of the country of Peru in 1981, it also serves as an animal refuge since no hunting or other harming of animals is allowed at the site. This means that most of the animals one might see there now are the same the Incans would have seen hundreds and even thousands of years ago, including literally hundreds of species of birds as well as alpacas, the llama-like animals whose fur the Incans harvested to make clothes, blankets, and ceremonial robes. Visiting Machu Picchu is like stepping back in time (“The Machu Picchu Gateway“).

WORKS CITED AND CONSULTED
Hennessey, Hannah. “Row Erupts Over Peru’s Tourist Treasure.” BBC News Online. 27 December, 2003. Accessed at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3335315.stm. 26 October 2007

“Machu Picchu”. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machu_Picchu Accessed 28 October 2007

“Machu Picchu Peru”. Sacred Sites. http://www.sacredsites.com/americas/peru/machu_picchu.html. Accessed 29 October 2007

“Machu Picchu”. UNESCO. http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=274 Accessed 27 October 2007

The Machu Picchu Gateway” http://www.machupichu.org. Accessed 28 October 2007.