Machu Picchu is probably the most famous place in Peru and it was definitely one of the highlights of our tour. It is often referred to as the Lost City of the Incas because it lay undiscovered until 24th July, 1911. It was the American archaeologist, Hiram Bingham, who came across it whilst he was searching for Vilcabamba - the legendary last stronghold of the Incas (which the Spanish conquistadores believed contained the Inca’s greatest treasure - but they never found it!).

Machu Picchu was built by the Incas during the 15th century but was mysteriously abandoned sometime around the time of the Spanish Conquest. There have been several theories suggested for why it was abandoned. These include being devastated by a plague, being overrun by a hostile jungle tribe and being punished by the Inca for being a rebel province. However the latest theory, based on new evidence, suggests that Machu Picchu was the location of the royal household of Pachacutec (the 9th Inca) which was abandoned a couple of generations after his death. Archeologists believe that Machu Picchu was built, occupied and abandoned all within the space of about 100 years and it didn’t take very long for the jungle vegetation to completely reclaim the mountain and hide the existence of the city for hundreds of years.

Our trip to Machu Picchu started with an early morning alarm call at 4:45am to catch the 6am tourist train from Cusco. We were only spending one night in Machu Picchu before returning to our hotel in Cusco so we were only allowed to take an overnight bag with us. There was actually a general strike taking place across the country that day in protest of escalating fuel prices but our local guide assured us that this would not affect any tourist services (and it didn’t).

Machu Picchu means “Ancient Peak” and is located about 50 miles (80km) northwest of Cusco as the crow flies but the single-track railroad we used to get there added an extra 20 miles (30km) to the journey. The train was quite slow particularly as it zigzagged up the mountain out of Cusco. In fact it only managed to average 20mph over the entire journey which was pretty slow considering it was downhill most of the way and only included one stop (at Ollantaytambo). We arrived at 9:20am and our overnight bags were taken to our hotel for us because we headed straight up to see the ruins.

It was significantly warmer here than in Cusco as we had descended 1,300m to an altitude of 2,000m and the lush vegetation all around reflected this warmer, almost tropical climate (but it was still cold at night). Both the station and our hotel were at a town called Aguas Calientes (which means “hot springs”) which is about 6 miles (10km) away from the ruins. There is a steady stream of buses that ferry people from here up to the ruins and at peak times (like when a train arrives) there can be quite a lot of them in transit at the same time. The ruins are actually 400m higher than the town and the Hiram Bingham Road that goes up there twists its way up the steep mountain side via several hairpin bends. It is only when the bus is on its final approach that the passengers get their first sight of the ruins.

A guided tour of the ruins was included in our package and this lasted for the rest of the morning. We entered the ruins through what is called the agricultural sector. This consists of a large number of terraces going up and down the mountain side which were used by the Incas to grow crops. Archeaologists think that these terraces could grow considerably more crops than were needed by the inhabitants of Machu Picchu, so there are a number of theories about what they did with their excess production. Some say that Machu Picchu was a sacred place used to grow coca leaves for the Cusco priesthood and royalty. Others suggest that the excess capacity of the terraces was used for agricultural experiments like trying to acclimatise high altitude plants and crops to lower climates.

We were taken up to the top of these terraces to a place overlooking the ruins where the classic shots of Machu Picchu are taken from and we were given ample opportunity to take our own photos. We stopped here for quite a while absorbing the spectacular scenery whilst our guide talked to us about the ruins and the various theories about their occupation and subsequent abandonment.

We returned back down these terraces to be shown around the rest of the ruins. We were shown some water channels constructed by the Incas which diverted spring water down to the site and were still working. This water was not only used for the irrigation of the terraces and drinking by the inhabitants but it also filled a chain of small “baths” connected by cascading waterfalls in which religious rituals were performed.

The remainder of the ruins are in what is called the urban sector, which includes the living accommodation used by the Inca royalty, the priesthood and the common people. It has been estimated that there were approximately 200 houses in Machu Picchu which some say could have housed up to 1000 people (which wasn’t enough to consume the crop potential of the terraces).

The urban sector also contains a number of temples and it was these that our guide concentrated on. One of the most important structures in the ruins is the Temple of the Sun. This is a strange, “P” shaped building that has two straight walls and a curved wall. It doesn’t look like the Incas had finished building this as the floor is not flat but still contains a lump of the mountain sticking out of it. It looks like they were still in the process of levelling it but it actually turns out that this rock was left proud for a reason. It is an important part of this solar observatory. There are two windows in this observatory, one for each solstice. When the sun rises on each of these days, it shines through one of these windows onto this rock and is perfectly aligned with a carved line. The Winter Solstice shines through the window you can see at the top of our picture and lines up exactly with the carved line you can see down the middle of the rock.

Another important astronomical structure is the Intihuatana or The Hitching Post of the Sun. This is located at probably the highest point in the urban sector. It is a large, strange shaped rock that has been carved out of the top of the mountain that it stands on. It has four sides that have been cut to be perfectly in line with the four cardinal points - which shows that the Incas knew about North, South, East & West despite not having developed the compass (they hadn’t discovered iron). It also has a rectangular “post” sticking out of the top. This is part of another, much bigger solar observatory. On the summer solstice, the sun rises through the Sun Gate (Intipunku) and shines its first light directly on this so called Hitching Post.

When we were entering the ruins, we saw a stand offering helicopter flights over the ruins for US$85 (~£60) per person. We were initially very tempted by this but our tour manager warned us that the operators were notoriously difficult to arrange a flight with. We occasionally saw their choppers flying around but they never actually flew over the ruins which made them lose their attraction. This was definitely the right decision as we got some pretty good aerial views without actually leaving the ground (see the pictures below).

While we were riding the bus back down to our hotel at the end of our first day in Machu Picchu, an enterprising young, Peruvian boy had set off on foot at the same time and took a more direct route down the mountain rather than following the road around each of the hairpin bends. He was always waiting for us along each stretch of road and waved to us as we passed. He easily beat us to the bottom and got on the bus as we drove alongside the river. Everyone on the bus had been eagerly looking for him after each turn and we were all more than happy to make a very generous donation of money, sweets and pens for his entertainining efforts when he got on the bus at the bottom.

Walks around Machu Picchu
After lunch, we were given the whole afternoon, as well as the following morning, free to walk around the ruins by ourselves. During our morning tour, our guide had pointed out three walks that we could do during this free time and we did all of them. The first one we did was a fairly easy walk back along the last leg of the Inca Trail up to the Sun Gate (Intipunku) which took around 1½ hours for the round trip. It is called The Sun Gate because the sun rises through this gate on the summer solstice and shines its first light on the Intihuatana rock down in Machu Picchu (see above). It was also a physical gate that could be closed to keep intruders out.

The Sun Gate is the point from which the Incas (or nowadays the tourists) walking along the Inca Trail got their first view of Machu Picchu. Actually, we think that the view from the Sun Gate can only really be appreciated by the hikers walking the Inca Trail as this is their first view of the lost city after their 4 day hike and will no doubt be quite an emotional view for them. Whereas people like ourselves, doing the shorter walk to the Sun Gate, cannot really appreciate this view as we have already seen a much better view from the top of the terraces.

The second walk that we did during the afternoon was to the Inca Drawbridge. This was along part of another Inca Trail leading to Machu Picchu from the southwest. This path was described to us as being very narrow, clinging to the sheer mountain side in places and needing a good head for heights as there were often sheer drops on the other side of the path. Patti, our tour manager, begged us not to actually cross this drawbridge as someone had once fallen to their death when attempting to cross it.

The path didn’t actually seem to be all that narrow but then again it is likely to feel much narrower to someone who suffers from vertigo as there really was a sheer drop along most of this path with no fence to prevent you from falling over the edge. The round trip to the drawbridge is supposed to take about 50 minutes but it didn’t take us that long. The final part of the path which contains the Inca drawbridge is shown in our picture. It runs along the top of a stone buttress built against the sheer cliff face. The Incas deliberately left a strategic gap in this buttress which has been bridged by some logs. These could be taken up to prevent intruders getting across.

It looks like there has been some attempt to block the final approach to the drawbridge but over the years this has obviously been broken down by all the people that have climbed past it. We, too, went all the way up to the drawbridge (but we didn’t cross it) as it really is the only way to appreciate how dangerous the bridge actually is. The logs that span the gap are quite loose and some of them look rotten in places. If that wasn’t enough, the path beyond has been completely overgrown so you couldn’t go anywhere on the other side anyway!

The final walk was easily the most demanding of the three because it was to the top of Huayna Picchu (“Young Peak”). This is the mountain that towers behind Machu Picchu and is what really makes the Inca ruins such a spectacular and memorable sight! When we first arrived at Machu Picchu, we had been amazed to see through our zoom lens that there were people stood at the top of this seriously steep mountain. We were told that this was actually quite a rewarding, two hour hike that wasn’t quite as hard as it looked. It actually only rises 300m above Machu Picchu to an altitude of 2,700m which is surprisingly the same height as the Sun Gate which we had already walked to but it looked a lot higher.

The entrance to this walk is strictly monitored - each person who goes on the walk has to write their name and their start time in a visitors book. They also have to sign themselves out when they return. In addition to this, people are not allowed to start the climb after 1pm in order to make sure that everybody is safely off the mountain before the sun sets. This meant that we had to do this walk the following morning.

Some people in our group had gone back up to the ruins just before dawn the following morning in order to see the sunrise but we had heard that the forecast for this wasn’t good so we decided to have a few extra hours sleep instead. When we started on the walk, we met some people from our tour group on their way back down who said that the forecast had been wrong and the sunrise had apparently been well worth getting up for.

The path up the mountain was originally built by the Incas and comprised of stone steps most of the way but these tended to be uneven and quite rocky in places which meant that we had to concentrate on where each foot was going almost all of the way up. The path took a zigzag route up the mountain to make the incline more manageable but it was still very tiring, probably more so because of the thin air at this altitude, and we found we had to rest at ever decreasing intervals. Our efforts were occasionally rewarded when we reached each of a number of lookouts on the way up which had some excellent views over Machu Picchu.

When we finally reached the top, 52 minutes later, there was quite a crowd of people already up there either recovering from their efforts or taking in the scenery which was literally stretching out in all directions from this peak. We felt on top of the world surrounded by sugarloaf mountains as far as the eye could see.

The route back down was quicker but it was far from easy as our legs were already turning to jelly. We would have probably completed the round trip in about 1½ hours but we decided to follow a sign-posted detour to the Temple of the Moon which was located on the far side of Huayna Picchu. This is supposed to have some of the best stonework in Machu Picchu but we didn’t really think it was worth the significant extra effort to get there. This detour was supposed to take 50 minutes round trip but we took just over an hour. It didn’t take too long to get there as it was down hill most of the way but it was extremely hard going on the way back up as our legs were by now fit for nothing and we had to rest literally every few steps. We finally signed out of the walk 2½ hours after starting it and returned back down to our hotel to have a much needed shower and lunch before our 3pm train back to Cusco where we spent another night. The following day we went on by far the longest train journey of our lives - to Lake Titicaca - which you can read all about on the next page...