Architectural, Cultural sights in Machu Picchu
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Hut of the Caretaker of the Funerary Rock
To get a visual fix of the whole site and snap the classic postcard photograph, climb the zigzagging staircase on the left immediately after entering the complex, which leads to a hut. Known as the Hut of the Caretaker of the Funerary Rock , it is one of a few buildings that has been restored with a thatched roof, making it a good shelter in the case of rain. The Inca Trail enters the city just below this hut.
The carved rock behind the hut may have been used to mummify the nobility, hence the hut's name.
If you continue straight into the ruins instead of climbing to the hut, you pass through extensive terracing to a beautiful series of 16 connected ceremonial baths that c…
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Central Plaza
At the back of the Intihuatana is another staircase. It descends to the Central Plaza, which separates the ceremonial sector of Machu Picchu from the more mundane residential and industrial sectors, which were not as well-constructed. At the lower end of this latter area is the Prison Group, a labyrinthine complex of cells, niches and passageways both under and above the ground.
The centerpiece of the group is the Temple of the Condor, which contains a carving of the head of a condor, with the natural rocks behind it resembling the bird's outstretched wings. Behind the condor is a well-like hole and, at the bottom of this, the door to a tiny underground cell that can only…
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Sacred Plaza
Climbing the stairs above the ceremonial baths, you reach a flat area of jumbled rocks, once used as a quarry. Turn right at the top of the stairs and walk across the quarry on a short path leading to the four-sided Sacred Plaza . The far side contains a small viewing platform (with a curved wall) that offers a view of the snowy Cordillera Vilcabamba in the far distance and the Río Urubamba below.
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Temple of the Three Windows
Important buildings flank the Sacred Plaza. The Temple of the Three Windows commands an impressive view of the plaza below through the huge trapezoidal windows that give the building its name.
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