MACHU PICCHU

Words fail me -- I can't describe the feeling when I caught my first sight of this Lost City of the Incas! To actually see the ruins, touch the immense rocks, walk the stairs and through the buildings, and imagine how life was lived here for 200 years was phenomenal. We were blessed with a beautiful day, an excellent guide and few tourist groups!

The Incas did not know how to write, so not many details are known about their society other than what the Spanish chose to record. When Hiram Bingham discovered the city in 1911, no one even knew its Inca name so he selected Machu Picchu, (old mountain) the name of a neighboring mountain as its name. It is actually built on Huayna Picchu (young mountain). He and his team of archaeologists often had to guess at the purposes of many of the sites, and it is still a mystery as to why it was abandoned.

The city was home to about 1,000 residents, who were probably noblemen or privileged Incas. It has over 100 flights of stone stairs -- all uneven with no railings! -- and consisted of temples, palaces, shrines, plazas, streets, paths, baths and some dwellings for workers, possibly about 200. When a male child was born, the community gave him a piece of land which he farmed, along with doing work in the city itself e.g. repairing walls, maintaining the plazas, building new structures, irrigation systems, etc. When he died, the plot reverted to the community and was then assigned to a new child. This might have accounted for the number of terraces that were constantly being added as the population increased.

There are five guard houses at different levels, which is where the Inca Trail ends, close to the Sun Gate. They were very good at administering their empire, and had a series of roads (10,000 miles) emanating from Cusco to all four corners -- the mountains (Andes), desert, ocean (Pacific) and jungle (Amazon). They were very good at overpowering and absorbing other native tribes into their empire and extracting an annual tribute to Cusco.

Their main gods were the Sun, Moon, Earth and Sea, and their sacred animals were the Condor which represented spirituality, and who carried souls to heaven, the Puma which was strength in life on earth, and the Snake which represented wisdom, and who carried messages to those in the underworld.

It is still a mystery as to how these people were able to construct these buildings because they did not have the wheel. Their brilliance is also demonstrated by their astrological knowledge -- they worshipped the Sun, and constructed a pyramid, Intihuatana (Hitching Post of the Sun) where there is a working sun dial, and their Temple to the Sun has two windows that the sun shines through perfectly at the spring and winter solstices. We visited the Sacred Plaza, saw the Temple of Three Windows and the chacana rock, and many other temples, and learned many other traditions. I came away wanting to know more about this ancient society.

I certainly treasure my Machu Picchu passport stamp, Centennial Visit certificate, and most of all, my memories.