Machu Picchu is an ancient Inca citadel set high in the Andes Mountains in Peru, above the Urubamba Valley. It was built in the 15th century and abandoned a century later at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. The three main areas of Machu Picchu are the Sacred District, Residential District, and District of the Priests and Nobility. It has faced threats from overtourism, including proposals for infrastructure like cable cars, hotels and a no-fly zone to help preserve it. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Machu Picchu remains Peru's most popular tourist attraction.

1. UNMSM
LANGUAGE’S CENTRE

2. ENGLISH
INTERMEDIATE
7

3. C U S C O
L A N D O F T H E I N C A S
1. History
2. Location
3. Machu Picchu santuary
4. Three sectors
5. Architecture
6. Inca road sistem
7. Rediscovery
8. Visiting Machu Picchu
9. Concerns over tourism

4. Cusco is a city in southeastern
Perú, near the Urubamba
Valley (Sacred Valley) of the
Andes Mountain range. It is
the capital of the Cusco
Region as well as the Cusco
province. The city has a
population of about 300,000,
triple the population it
contained just 20 years ago.
The altitude of the city,
located on the eastern end of
the Knot of Cusco, is around
3,500 m (11,500 feet).
Cusco, the city
Website:
www.municusco.gop.pe

5. Machu Picchu is a pre-
Columbian city created by
the Inca Empire. It is located
at 2,430 m (7,970 ft) altitude
on a mountain ridge. Machu
Picchu is located above the
Urubamba
Valley in Peru, about 70 km
(44 mi) northwest of Cusco.
Forgotten for centuries by the
outside world, although not
by locals, it was brought back
to international attention by
archaeologist Hiran Bingham
in 1911.
Machu Picchu The Sacred
Valley
Machu Picchu is probably the most familiar symbol
of the Inca Empire. It is often referred to as "The
Lost City of the Incas". The site was designated as a
World Heritage site in 1983. when it was described
as "an absolute masterpiece of architecture and a
unique testimony to the Inca civilization"

6. The Intihuatana ("sun-tier") is believed to have
been designed as an astronomic clock by the
Incas
HISTORY
Machu Picchu was constructed
around 1450, at the height of the
Inca empire, and was abandoned
less than 100 years later, as the
empire collapsed under Spanish
conquest. Although the citadel is
located only about 50 miles from
Cusco, the Inca capital, it was
never found and destroyed by the
Spanish, as were many other Inca
sites. Over the centuries, the
surrounding jungle grew to
enshroud the site, and few knew of
its existence. In 1911, Yale
historian and explorer Hiram
Bingham brought the "lost" city
to the world’s attention.

7. On July 7, 2007, Machu Picchu was
voted as one of New Open World
Corporation's New Seven Wonders of
the World.

8. Machu Picchu is 70 kilometers
northwest of Cusco, on the crest of
the mountain Machu Picchu,
located about 2,350 meters above
sea level. It is one of the most
important archaeological centers in
South America and the most visited
tourist attraction in Peru.
From the top, at the cliff of Machu
Picchu, is a vertical precipice of 600
meters ending at the foot of the
Urubamba River. The location of
the city was a military secret
because its deep precipices and
mountains were an excellent natural
defense.
LOCATION

9. MACHU PICCHU SANTUARY
In 1981 an area of 325.92 square kilometres
surrounding Machu Picchu was declared a
"Historical Sanctuary" of Peru. This area, which
is not only limited to the ruins themselves, also
includes the regional landscape with its flora
and fauna, highlighting the abundance of
orchids.
One theory maintains that Machu Picchu was an
Incan "llacta": a settlement built up to control
the economy of the conquered regions and that
it may have been built with the purpose of
protecting the most select of the Incan
aristocracy in the event of an attack. Machu
Picchu was an estate of the Inca emperor
Pachacuti. Johan Reinhard presents evidence
that the site was selected based on its position
relative to sacred landscape features, especially
mountains that are in alignment with key
astronomical events.

10. According to the archaeologists, the
urban sector of Machu Picchu was
divided into three great districts: the
Sacred District, the Popular District,
to the south, and the District of the
Priests and the Nobility (royalty
zone).
Located in the first zone are the
primary archaeological treasures: the
Intihuatana, the Temple of the Sun and
the Room of the Three Windows. These
were dedicated to Inti, their sun god
and greatest deity. The Popular
District, or Residential District, is the
place where the lower class people
lived. It includes storage buildings and
simple houses to live in.
Temple of the Sun
Three sectors

11. Architecture
All of the construction in Machu Picchu uses the
classic Inca architectural style of polished dry-
stone walls of regular shape. The Incas were
masters of this technique, called ashlar, in which
blocks of stone are cut to fit together tightly
without mortar. Many junctions in the central city
are so perfect that not even a knife fits between the
stones. The Incas never used the wheel in any
practical manner. How they moved and placed
enormous blocks of stones is a mystery, although
the general belief is that they used hundreds of
men to push the stones up inclined planes. It is
unknown if the Incas left behind any
documentation about that process; if there is
narrative information in the record keeping system
they employed, called khipus, which is currently
not readable. The space is composed of 140
constructions including temples, sanctuaries, parks
and residences, houses with thatched roofs.
Inca wall at Machu Picchu

12. Among the thousands of roads
constructed by the pre-Columbian
cultures in South America, the roads of
the Inca were some of the most
interesting. This network of roads
converged at Cusco, the capital of the
Inca Empire. One of them went to the
city of Machu Picchu. The Incas
distinguished between coastal roads and
mountain roads, the former was called
Camino de los llanos (road of the plains)
and the latter was called Cápac Ñam.
Today, tens of thousands of tourists walk
the Inca roads – particularly The Inca
Trail – each year, acclimatising at Cusco
before starting on a two- to four-day
journey on foot from the Urubamba
valley up through the Andes mountain
range.
Inca road system
View of Machu Picchu from
Huayna Picchu, showing the Hiram
Bingham Highway used by buses
carrying tourists to and from the
town of Aguas Calientes.

13. Simone Waisbard, a long-
time researcher of Cusco,
claims Enrique Palma,
Gabino Sánchez and Agustín
Lizárraga left their names
engraved on one of the rocks
there on July 14, 1901,
having rediscovered it before
Bingham. Likewise, in 1904
an engineer named Franklin
spotted the ruins from a
distant mountain. He told
Thomas Paine, an English
Plymouth Brethren
Christian missionary living
in the region, about the site.
Rediscovery
In 1906, Paine and another Brethren missionary
named Stuart E McNairn (1867-1956) climbed up to
the ruins. Five years later, in 1911, Paine talked with
Bingham and outfitted him with guides and mules for
journey to the site. What makes Bingham the
"rediscoverer" of Machu Picchu is the fact that he was
the one who brought Machu Picchu to the world's
attention.
View of the city of Machu Picchu in 1911

14. Visiting Machu Picchu
All visits to Machu Picchu at some
point leave from Cusco, which can be
reached via a domestic flight from
Lima. Taking the tourist train from
Cusco (which takes 3.5 hours to get to
Machu Picchu), you have several
options.
The most common way is to take the
train to Machu Picchu in the morning,
explore the ruins for a few hours and
return to Cusco in the afternoon. The
train terminates at Puente Ruinas
station, where buses take tourists up
the mountain to Machu Picchu.
Strangely, Machu Picchu station is at
Aguas Calientes (2 km before Puente
Ruinas station) but is not the station
used by tourists on a day trip
View looking down the terraced steps to
the Urubamba river

15. Concerns over tourism
Machu Picchu is a UNESCO World Heritage site. As Peru’s most visited
tourist attraction and major revenue generator, it is continually
threatened by economic and commercial forces. In the late 1990s, the
Peruvian government granted concessions to allow the construction of a
cable car to the ruins and development of a luxury hotel, including a
tourist complex with boutiques and restaurants. These plans were met
with protests from scientists, academics and the Peruvian public, worried
that the greater numbers of visitors would pose tremendous physical
burdens on the ruins.
A growing number of people visit Machu Picchu (400,000 in 2003), For
this reason, there were protests against a plan to build a further bridge to
the site and a no-fly zone exists in the area. UNESCO is considering
putting Machu Picchu on its list of endangered World Heritage Sites.
Damage to the site due to usage has occurred. In September 2000 a
centuries-old sundial at Machu Picchu was damaged by the J. Walter
Thompson advertising agency while filming an advertisement for
Cusqueña beer.

16. THE END

17. CUSCO LAND OF INCAS
U N M S M
ENGLISH
INTERMEDIATE 7
PATRICIA PINO
JHONN GUERRA
RENZO FALCÓN
2007