MACHU PICCHU PERU 2017 - 8 - A SPECTACULAR JEWEL CLOSE TO THE HEAVENS

 

A homestead right behind the market place away from tourist eyes in Agua Caliente, entry town to Machu Picchu

We are finally at the gates of Machu Picchu! I can’t believe how hard it is to get to this place even with all the amenities of today’s modern world. One has to fly to Lima and connect to Cusco by air, first. Then you must have a train ticket reserved and paid for months before to get to Agua Caliente if you are to not bother with hiking. If you are to hike, Inca trail reservation must be done a year in advance. With Quarry Trail, there is no way one can do it on their own, no trail markings.

We will drive around and around this boulder/mountain for half an hour to get to the gates of Machu Picchu

With Inca Trail itself, I have questions in my mind how well the trail may be marked for a lone hiker to do it on their own. If you get to Agua Caliente, the tickets on the bus to the gates also must have been reserved and purchased ahead of time. No wonder Spaniards couldn’t find this settlement in all the centuries of occupation! The entrance to Machu Picchu is very crowded, I have never seen such a crowd before the gates of any historic place. Yet, I will find out around 11 am that what we have now is nothing, the crowd grows by ten-fold mid-day.

The first close-up glimpse of Machu Picchu as we climb up the stone steps

For some reason, you have to show your passport before entering Machu Picchu, before getting on buses or trains heading to the city. Not that anybody takes any note of your nationality for statistical purposes… And nobody can explain me why a non-passport ID is unacceptable. This reminds me of some of the stories my dad would share about his mandatory military service. One such story was about the absurdity of one of many of the rules in the military: Around his barracks, there was a rock that was placed there decades before with the order from a general, at my dad’s time an inconvenient location. Decades later nobody would know why it was placed there and why it couldn’t be removed; the rock had almost become a holly object that nobody could touch!

This line is uninterrupted from dawn to dusk every day of the year: Hence, over 2 million visitors, annually

Visiting Machu Picchu is a hike in and of itself. We start climbing up the winding stairs that is probably about half a kilometer or so. Each step is 1.5-2 feet high, from Inca time we are told and they do look like it. With each switchback, more of Machu Picchu and its terraces reveal themselves to us. This is indeed a breathtaking place. We take photo-taking breaks with the guidance and permission of our guide, which help us all to catch our breaths as well. Our guide tells us all about the history and the unearthing process of Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu starts unveiling herself at our first viewpoint with Wymapicchu Mountain in the background

A Yale Professor, Mr. Bingham was interested in the Inca culture and although there was knowledge already that an Inca city existed that was not destroyed by the Spaniards, for some reason Peruvian government in 1910s, wanted Mr. Bingham to lead the excavation. Ironically, it was a 7 y/o child named Litu Alvarez, who led Mr. Bingham to the site of Machu Picchu! I know already that Inca culture is characterized by three sacred animals: Condor representing the skies and the universe, puma representing the Inca (the emperor) and the snake representing the underground world.

The view from our second viewpoint

Apparently, the city of Machu Picchu was built in the shape of a condor from aerial view. It covers an area of 90,000 m2. Anywhere from 600-1000 people lived there at its height. It was constructed between 1436 and 1536 using the labor of some 1500-2000 men and local stones from the quarry within Machu Picchu. To enrich the terraces they brought rich soil from the valley and cultivated the soil very successfully. In fact, even today, restoration efforts reestablished some of the vegetation that existed during its time. Kudos to preservers…

After the third viewpoint, we will start going through this spectacular fortress

The hill on which Machu Picchu is established, is between two mountains: Wymapicchu and Machu Picchu. Wymapicchu Mountain rises 275 m above the valley floor, but I discover, in order to climb up on this mountain to get an aerial view of Machu Picchu, one needs to get a special permit ahead of time as well; missed opportunity. If you forget how high the valley floor is, Wymapicchu looks like a huge smooth boulder among all the grand Andean peaks that pierce the sky behind it.

Entering the fortress through the Emperor's gate

Inkas built multiple temples in the fortress. We first visit the Temple of the Mother Earth or Temple of Pachamama which carries the Temple of the Sun above it. Up toward the Machu Picchu Mountain, they built a sun gate. Apparently, during winter solstice, the sun rays passing through the sun gate would enter the Temple of the Sun through the east window and during the summer solstice, through the south window. Inkas held sun festivities during each solstice celebrating the duality of the Mother Earth and the Father Sun, which is the core of Inka culture. However, nowadays due to global warming, this phenomenon is not observed anymore! Inkas also believed in the harmony among the four elements of fire, earth, wind, and water, very similar to Aegean philosophers’ attempts to understand the universe. Is it just the brain evolution and capacity to philosophize in similar ways are common features of homo sapiens in whichever part of the world they evolved? Or as our guide claims did Sumerians indeed travel to Peru and taught pre-Inkans what Sumerians already knew? If so, why doesn’t Sumerian written history have any documentation of such encounters?

Going down to the Sun Temple, the valley down below is quite impressive

Our guide claims a pot with Sumerian artistic features was found in a cave by Lake Titicaca and this is his evidence of such encounters. He even claims syphilis was given to Spaniards by the Inkas. He tells us about Inkas using fermented chicha as an anesthetic to do brain surgery. When some of those people died during surgery, science has proven that some of them lived for up to 2 years after the surgery. When we reach the sacred square, he tells us about the Falling Temple that was built in honor of Wine Kocha (the deity that created the universe) in honor of the Inka trilogy, puma, condor, and snake.

Temple of the Sun

A rock with four corners placed in front of this temple shows north, south, west and east as verified by a compass on it. He also talks about the vortex of energy that pulls lots of mystics to the Machu Picchu area. My thoughts were more toward meditation in this environment. If the crowds could be diluted by 100 times, one could perhaps sense the energy in the air, could meditate, and find deep connection with the divine nature all around us. Alas, with constant buzzing of some thousands on the fortress that is not quite possible to do at least in the sacred square. In order to meditate for at least a bit, once, we were done with our guided tour, I find a hut close to the exit behind which there were only about a dozen people, most of whom was looking for the quiet I was looking for since they were all silent. I sit on a bench and meditate gazing at the valley below, at the mountain peaks, the terraces of Machu Picchu, at the sun gate and the Urubamba Valley with all its visible length.

 
 

Looking up from the lowest point of Machu Picchu

I had 10 precious quiet moments in Machu Picchu until a noisy family arrived and broke the peace for all of us. I smile at them and leave the bench for their use. I don’t know if they see the peace and calm on my face or body. Ten minutes of visual meditation did it for me, I hope it helps them, too. I walk toward the exit since at this point the guards do not allow you to go back and spend more time in the fortress. In order to come back to the fortress both to enjoy parts of it at a slower pace and also go to the sun gate, I have to leave the fortress, join the crowd to re-enter the fortress. Although looking down the crowd is scary, I try to focus on the vegetation that reportedly was native to this land when Incas roamed the land. They are thick, dense, loaded with colorful flowers...

Sacred plaza Temple

Falling Temple in Sacred Plaza

The quarry in the fortress that provided stones to Machu Picchu buildings

Walls were connected to one another with these horizontal cylindrical stones

Some of the flowering plants that were native to this land during the Inka era



Impressive rock work from the fortress

The view of the Urubamba River and Valley just before exiting Machu Picchu