Machu Picchu Civilization

High in the Peruvian Andres there’s is a cloud filled city that defies this definition with small pools, fountains, temples and altars this place is called Machu Picchu. Their civilization lacked the tools needed, with no iron and wheel to use Archeologists have long wondered why it was built the way it was as well as how. With more than two hundred structures within, carved from stone, surrounding a hundred acre green nourished by open water ways and fountains. With no carvings there can be little said on the purpose of Machu Picchu, but there have been some new developments in the questions of why this was built, how it was built, etc. With their architecture being reminiscent of Ancient Rome, it can be said that these people were master …show more content…
What we do know about these people is very biased, since this information comes from the Spanish explorers coming to conquer this land. The Incas were warrior peoples, conquering nearby lands and “forging them into one of the largest empires in the world, stretching some 2,400 miles” (NOVA, 2010). They transformed sloping lands into farmland, using rise and run in the process of terracing. The impressiveness of the civilization comes with the realization that it was only around for about one hundred years. Their decline was due to disease, civil war, and then the Spanish Conquistadors. Ordered by the First Inca emperor, Pachacuti, Machu Picchu was built. This is backed up by the similarities found in the stonework of both Machu Picchu and other temples Pachacuti had built during his reign. The site of which Machu Picchu is found would have been difficult to build on mostly due to the fact that it crosses two fault lines and its steepness; but it has two …show more content…
The city is surrounded by these carved icons of the mountains encircling Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu is further embraced by the Urubamba River, which was very important for this agricultural society. At Machu Picchu’s peak there is a sacred carved pillar that is in alignment with four of these important mountain gods of the Inca. This pillar is not only the center of the city, but the center of this landscape as well. These four mountain gods also coincide with the four cardinal directions, which is also how the pillar was carved. These undeniable facts must have made this location alluring to the Inca from a religious standpoint. Machu Picchu is an awe-inspiring symbol of Incan power, with the link to these powerful mountain gods and a physical reminder of their engineering prowess it was a