johnsunter.com >> adventures - world >> americas >> machu picchu 1
Exploring the Ancient City of Machu Picchu (1/2).
Having completed the Inca Trail, had a shower, and spent the night in a comfortable bed, we are given a whole day, to explore the amazing Lost City of Machu Picchu.
The train carrying day trippers, arrives around 10am.
Our Guide suggests getting the early bus, so that we can get there, when its practically deserted.
I was quite looking forward to a lie in, but adventure called.
It was dark as we queue 'd to get on the bus from Aguas Calientes.
You can see just how quiet it was, when we arrived.
Yale professor Hiram Bingham discovered the ruins buried beneath dense undergrowth in 1911.
The first sight of Machu Picchu is almost magical. The temples, fields, terraces, and baths appear to be part of the hillside itself.
Separated into three areas - agricultural, urban, and religious - the structures are arranged so that the function of the buildings matches the form of their surroundings.
As we look across the valley, I see the famous Putucusi (2,600m). I prefer its local name, "happy mountain".
Its shape reminded me of earlier in the trip when we visited Coricancha.
The Incas had been forced into Roman Catholicism, and painted religious pictures with women with strange shaped dresses.
These were actually the shape of mountains like this one, which the Inca's originally worshipped.
The Sunrise of Machu Picchu.
I have always found anything involving the Sun rising/setting over anything famous, to be a let down. This was different.
As I took this picture, a person with a bald head was standing nearby, and the Sun shining of his head, was blinding.
The Temple of the Condor is ingeniously created from a natural rock formation resembling the outspread wings of a condor in flight.
On the floor of the temple is this rock carved in the shape of the condor's head and neck feathers.
Historians speculate that the head of the condor was used as a sacrificial altar.
The Royal Tomb.
A mummy was found under here.
Our guide explained that a double doorway like this (with an inner and outer doorway) was an indicator, that the person who lived here was of significant importance.
The Temple of the Sun (on the right) and surrounding buildings, showing the tongue and groove construction used by the Inca's.
The temple of the Sun is one of the most recognised ruins in Machu Picchu.
It was explained to me, but I never completely understood, why it was round.
Botanical Garden.
A modern and not particularly inspiring selection of plants in a moderate sized flowerbed.
It was still nice to some of the local flowers we had passed on the Inca Trail.
Central Plaza, a large grassy field that separates the Sacred Plaza and Intiwatana from the more commonplace areas on the far side.
The Sacred Plaza.
You can see the array of different types of building in this shot.
It sort of captures this diversity shapes within Machu Picchu.
Next to the Principal Temple is the Temple of Three Windows, named by Hiram Bingham for its three identical, trapezoidal windows that open into the main plaza.
johnsunter.com >> adventures - world >> americas >> machu picchu 1
