Machu Picchu

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  • Transport
    bus: from Aguas Calientes
train: 
walking: from Aguas Calientes

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Lonely Planet review

Machu Picchu is not mentioned in the chronicles of Spanish conquistadors. Apart from some indigenous Quechuas, nobody knew of its existence until American historian Hiram Bingham stumbled upon it in 1911. Machu Picchu was initially overgrown with thick vegetation. Bingham returned in 1912 and 1915 to clear the thick forest, when he also discovered some of the ruins on the Inca Trail.

Peruvian archaeologist Luis E Valcárcel undertook further studies in 1934, as did a Peruvian-American expedition under Paul Fejos in 1940-41. Despite scores of more recent studies, knowledge of Machu Picchu still remains sketchy. Over 50 burial sites and 100 skeletal remains have been discovered over the course of excavations. Some believe the citadel was founded in the waning years of the last Incas as an attempt to preserve their culture, or rekindle its predominance, while others think it may have already been an uninhabited, forgotten city at the time of the conquest. A more recent theory suggests that the site was a royal retreat abandoned at the time of the Spanish invasion. What is obvious from the exceptionally high quality of the stonework and the abundance of ornamental work is that Machu Picchu must once have been vitally important as a ceremonial center.