Machu Picchu is an Inca settlement located in the High Andes of Peru in the Urubamba Valley, north of Cuzco. The site, perched high above the Urubamba river, has been variously described as a fortress, imperial retreat and ceremonial precinct. It was founded by Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui in c. 1450 CE, had capacity for around 1,000 residents at its peak, and ranked amongst the most sacred of all sites for the Inca. Following the collapse of the Inca empire, Machu Picchu was abandoned and forgotten, only to be rediscovered in 1911 CE by the explorer Hiram Bingham. Machu Picchu is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

Purpose

Machu Picchu (meaning ‘old hill’) was an imperial estate founded by and belonging to Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, the Inca ruler, in the mid-15th century CE. The ownership of the site was later passed to Pachacuti’s successors. On its rediscovery by the explorer Hiram Bingham in 1911 CE (although local residents in the valley had always known of the site’s existence) it was claimed as the last capital of the Incas. However, this proved to be untrue when the actual final capital was discovered at Vilcabamba, further downstream in the Urubamba Valley.

Another hypothesis concerning the site posed by early historians was that Machu Picchu was a fortress and the strong walls, large towers, and dry moats were cited in support of this theory. The need for fortification perhaps sprang from a series of severe droughts which made the competition for resources fierce. This would also explain why the site was not occupied for very long as when the water situation improved the necessity for such citadel sites declined.

Once again though, further study has revealed that most of the architecture was designed for religious purposes and the fortifications may well have been put in place to ensure only a select few could enter this sacred site. In further support of this interpretation, a road was discovered which linked the site to several residential settlements dotted along the valley. The most likely purpose of Machu Picchu, then, was as a sacred site, probably to the sun god Inti and with the additional purpose of reminding the recently conquered local population of the power and might of Pachacuti and the Inca empire centred at its capital Cuzco.

The site was abandoned by the Inca shortly before Pizarro and the Spanish conquistadors arrived. The invaders never reached Machu Picchu, though, and the site would remain unknown to the wider world for 400 years.

Full Article by Mark Cartwright https://www.worldhistory.org/Machu_Picchu/

From UNESCO https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/274/

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  • guolai [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    3·
    1 month ago

    Today and yesterday, I got so frustrated with being slightly inconvenienced by my computer. Yesterday, I tried to wipe some stuff from my browser history so that it won’t pop up when I search for something similar which did include my cookies for just the last hour. My computer freezes, and ends up wiping all of my cookies (luckily not my history and bookmarks although that has happened before with a Firefox update). That was really annoying.

    Today, I was locked in on discovering some really old stuff that some people were asking for the source way back then…only to be met with an entire system update which explains why my browser was just super unresponsive (although half of it was likely from the heat) when I was like really close to getting to the source. So yay for that time waster until the update was done.

    and to throw one last wrench, Firefox also has an update today which again, I only realized because my browser is chugging…