Machu Picchu

Hiram Bingham was searching for another lost city called Vilcampapa when he stumbled on the ruins of Machu Picchu. The city was so overgrown with vegetation that he could barely make out the find Inca stonework or the layout of the site. After clearing and mapping the ruins with his team, Bingham revealed the city to the world, and published a large amount of his photos of Machu Picchu in the April 1913 is

In the mid fifteenth century AD Machu Picchu was carefully placed among sacred mountain peaks, in a unique and spectacular setting, with views of mountains in all directions. The city is also a prime observation spot for the movements of the sun, and archaeologists and astronomers have identified a number of natural and constructed points in the city that were used for making astronomical and solar observations ( Bauer and Dearborn 95).

Historical and archaeological research has not thrown out Bingham’ theories. Instead they have shown that Bingham had actually found was a city that was probably built by the Inca emperor Pachacuti, probably to serve as a royal retreat. The location of the site and its architecture, give clues to the true nature and function of Machu Picchu(Morris, Van Hagen 92).

One of Machu Pichhu’s primary functions was astronomical observation. The Intihuatana stone ( the word inti means “sun”, and huata means “to tie”) also called Hitching Post of the Sun. George Squier, an energetic American traveler who visited Peru in the 1870’s, was one of the first modern observers to guess the importance of some of the stone pinnacles. Squier had seen them in Inca ruins at Huaitara in the central Andes and at Pisac near Cuzco. Squier described them as “inti-huatanas or sun-fingers. Squier never saw the Intihuatana stone at Machu Picchu(Morris, Von Hagen 93). The Intihuatana stone has been shown to be an indicator of the date of the winter solstice and other significant periods. Every midwinter, the Incas held a ceremony at this stone, in which they “tied the sun” to stop its northward movement in the sky. Legends say that when a sensitive person touches their forehead to the stone, the Intihuatana opens one’s vision to the spirit world. Intihuatana stones were very important and sacred to the Inca people and were searched for and destroyed by the Spanish. When the Intihuatana stone was broken at an Inca shrine, the Inca believed that the divine deities of the place died or departed ( Bingham 48). The Spaniards never found Machu Picchu, even though they

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