Machu Picchu, located northwest of Cuzco, a city in Peru, was mistakenly discovered and further revealed to the world in the summer of 1911 by Yale professor Hiram Bingham. What many do not know is that this site was kept a secret from the outside world for hundreds of years before (M. Picchu Discovered, 2009). Meaning “Old Peak” in the native Quechua language, its existence was only known to the peasants living in the region. Bingham was on an exploration to find the lost city of Vilcabamba, but actually came across Machu Picchu instead after a local farmer named Melchor Artega told him and his crew of some ruins on top of a nearby mountain (Ibid). Machu Picchu has been labelled as one of the most impressive and important archaeological sites in history. It stretches five miles, with over 3,000 stone steps linking its many different levels, made up of precincts, plazas, temples, houses, tombs, stone canals, stairways, platforms, and rooms for storing food (Ibid). This site is a testament to the power and ingenuity of the Inca people, and showed how delicate and intricate their creations were (National Geographic, 2017). Bingham was astonished with the quality of the Inca stonework, and how the white granite walls on the ruined houses were so “carefully cut and exquisitely fitted together” (Cavendish, 2011).
An impressive thing to realize is that although this site is considered as the most amazing urban creation of the Inca Empire, the origins still remain a mystery, and the possibilities of the real purpose of Machu Picchu, are endless.
Because of the site’s outstanding preservation, the discovery of Machu Picchu came along with the findings of many different artifacts. Bingham found more than a hundred skeletons at the site, a reasonable fifty-fifty split between male and female bones, which showed that there were many people residing at the site (Hearn, 2017). Jars, cups, pots, plates, textiles such as wool and cotton, jewellery, headdresses, and pottery used in everyday life as well as for grave goods to serve the dead, were also recovered. These findings taught us that the Inca people were very hard workers, constantly creating many tools, accessories, and also clothing. Furthermore, they had dominant technical skill, as the site’s 15th-century ruins were constructed without sealant, having the blocks of stone fitted so tightly together that you could not even fit a piece of paper between them. Afterlife was highly important to the servers of Machu Picchu, as accompanying their burials were their personal possessions, including their domestic ceramics (Artifacts from M. Picchu, 2011). Additionally, it showed us how much the Inca people valued respecting other’s belongings. Today, more than 300,000 people tramp through Machu Picchu every year, braving crowds and landslides to see the sun set over the towering stone monuments of the “Sacred City” and marvel at the mysterious splendour of one of the world’s most famous man-made wonders (M. Picchu Discovered, 2009).
Machu Picchu is an extremely unique site, as it has both archaeological value and a mysterious abundance of ecosystems. This citadel must be protected due to the natural and cultural attraction that it brings to tourists. Machu Picchu includes about 10% of the fauna and 22% of the flora of Peru, and stands out as one of the few mountain regions that have plentiful available information about the local plant and animal life. 401 species of birds have been recorded, along with 19 reptiles, 10 amphibians, 13 fishes, 300 diurnal and 400 nocturnal butterflies. Also recorded are 309 species of orchids, and it is estimated that there are 200 additional species not recorded (Machu Picchu, 2018) The Inca people valued their creation of Machu Picchu and kept it undisclosed from the rest of the world for a long time. Only insiders knew about the site, and it took several years for an outsider to discover it. This showed how Machu Picchu was very valuable to the Inca Empire and culture. There is no mention of Machu Picchu in any of the chronicles of the European invaders, so it’s clear that they never discovered it (Hearn, 2017). The Inca people had no language and no written records, so there was nothing to document that this site even existed at all, let alone the reason for it. There are many different theories as to what the purpose of the citadel was, some suspecting a ceremonial site, military stronghold, or a retreat for Inca leaders such as the great Inca emperor Pachacutec, which means ‘He who Shakes the Earth’ (National Geographic, 2017).
It is hoped that after reading this letter, your organization will add the incredible site of Machu Picchu to your World Heritage Site list. We need to protect this citadel and honour the values of the Inca Empire, by preserving their most intricate creation. The Inca people valued respecting other’s belongings more than anything, and we must do that by preserving their establishment.