SunRise at Machu Picchu on June 7, 2009
We also saw three different herds of monkeys, green parrots, and had this amazing experience with endangered River Otters... The family of three swam all the way across the lake to yell at us...
What are you doing on our lake? Leave!
Machu Picchu was amazing... The site carved out of a mountain top and abandoned by the Incas in 1500s. It was rediscovered by Hiram Bingham in 1911.
The masonry techniques of this region are world famous. Carved with stone tools, convex on top and concave on the bottom, each stone was shaped to fit and lock together for earthquake resistance. Their joints are so precise that a "knife blade cannot be wedged between stones." National Geographic Peruvian Web Page The Sacred Mountain Wayna Picchu overlooks the site |
"Sacsahuaman is arguably the greatest Inca ruin outside of Machu Picchu, this gargantuan complex overlooks the city of Cusco. Sacsahuaman is believed to have once been a royal retreat, a fortress, or both. Its zigzag walls are built with some of the largest stones to be found in Inca masonry; some are estimated to weigh as much as 300 tons, yet are fit together as tightly as the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle." --Mark Adams, author of Turn Right at Machu Picchu
Left - Tambomachay an Inca fountain outside of Cusco. Water is still transferred 15 kilometers to this site in Incan aqueducts. Right - Koricancha, the Sacred Temple, is the most sacred of Incan temples. Its walls were once lined with gold. It is located in Cusco was the capitol of ancient civilizations in Peru. Cusco translates as the "navel of the world." The Incas build their empire upon other earlier civilizations. They had 4,000 miles of paved roads linked the empire together. The Inca civilization only lasted for 100 years. It demise was the Spanish invasion in 1536. Most of the sacred places were destroyed by the conquistadors, or re-made into churches such as Koricancha, the Sun Temple. The Sun Temple is located "beneath the veneer of a Spanish monastery." National Geographic Peruvian Web Page
Left - Pisco Market square a town in th middle of the Sacred Valley... A lot of my souvenirs were purchased here.
Center and Right - OllantaytamboIn, in the Sacred Valley, is a stepped terrace fortress that in 1536,was the site of the Inca's greatest military victory over the Spaniards. The defenders used slingshots and arrows against the invader's muskets. The site is capped by six enigmatic slabs of pink granite. Grain storage across the valley from Ollantaytamboln. Right- Me by one of the mysterious pink granite stones... |