Machu Picchu The Old Mountain Machu Picchu the

Machu Picchu The ‘ Old Mountain’

Machu Picchu the ’Old Mountain’ is an Inca site located 2, 430 metres above sea level. The most familiar icon of the Inca World. (15 th century) It’s also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Machu Picchu was built in the classical Inca style with polished dry stone walls. Its three primary buildings are the Itihuatana stone, the Temple of the sun and the room of the three widows.

The Sapa Inca was the all-powerful emperor, the leader the ’only emperor’, the direct descendant of the sun god Inti. Whenever he left his palace his face was covered with translucent cloth. He wore an outfit once, lived in a golden palace and had many wives and might have 100 children. a Sapa In ca a

The Incas did not have writing but used knots in ropes to store mathematical information. They made lovely jewellery, colourful artifacts and were great architects.

Achievements important to the success of the Inca Empire: Communication: (roads, runners) Specialized Professions (engineers, metal workers, stone masons, other artisans) Service Tax (huge free labor force) Technology (terrace farming, surplus crops, irrigation systems) Strong Central Government (all powerful Inca, strict laws, basic needs satisfied) Recap of Inventions: Terrace Farming Freeze Dried Foods Use of Gold and Silver Marvelous Stonework Wonderful Textiles Aqueducts (the Incas were frequent bathers) Hanging Bridges Panpipes Systems of Measurement (calendar, quipus)

The Incas never invented the wheel. They never invented a system of writing. Yet, high in the rugged Andes Mountains of South America, the Incas built thousands of miles of well-paved roads, everyone in the empire was well fed and no one was homeless.

Hiram Bingham (1875 -1956)