Machu Picchu – an overview of the Sanctuary

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The following description is designed to give a general overview of the main places of interest within the Machu Picchu Sanctuary.

AGRICULTURAL SECTOR

This district is surrounded by a series of agricultural terraces that differ in type and size and might have performed two chief functions, one being crop growing and the other protection from water erosion caused by intense rains. Within the agricultural sector are five storehouse-like structures, called collpas or granaries.

Checkpoint

It is a three-walled building with several windows, which you come to before reaching the main gate. The view from here offers a panorama of the two large sectors, the agricultural and the urban, as well as the surrounding scenery.

Upper cemetery and burial stones

In Machu Picchu, as in all Incan cities, the Incas buried their dead in outlying areas. Researchers have uncovered skeletal remains in this place, and in the upper part, they found small stones that are part of the site, an indication that they were used as some sort of offering by the Incas.

URBAN SECTION

The physical separation between this sector and the agricultural is a dry moat, and from this site you can also see a rather long stairway leading to the main gate. One of the features of an Incan city (llaqta) is that the main architectural elements are found within this sector. And in the case of Machu Picchu, the city is shaped as a letter U. To the north is a large sub-sector, religious due to the number of temples there, and to the south is a group of homes and workshops built on terraced platforms that Hiram Bingham christened the military group.

Temple of the Sun

The building is designed as a semi-circle and constructed on a foundation of rock, an existing granite block fashioned to follow the natural curve and whose perimeter measures 10.5 meters. There are two trapezoidal windows in which the builders added mouldings at each of the corners. On the north side is a wonderfully stone worked gate, and in its jambs, the Incas drilled holes, much like what is found in the Koricancha Temple in the city of Cusco.

Ceremonial rock

This menhir stands 3 meters high, measures 7 meters around at its base, and has been fashioned to look like a cat. From a different angle though, it recalls the profile of one of the mountains surrounding Machu Picchu. Because of the characteristics of the group this rock belongs to, which also features two ‘huayranas’ or three-walled rooms, it probably fulfilled ceremonial purposes.

Temple of the Three Windows

This building, located on the eastern side of the main square, exhibits a large rectangular floor plan and owes its name to the main section, where there are three beautiful windows plus two open spaces. The architectural style exhibited in this structure, together with the main temple, is by far the most striking of all Machu Picchu; we are talking about enormous, meticulously fashioned stones, fitted to such a degree that mere millimetres separate them.

MainTemple

It is north of the sacred plaza, hard by the Temple of the Three Windows. The Incas built it as a wayrana, i.e. an 11 metre by 8 metre rectangular structure but with only three walls, which measure .90 metres in thickness. At the foot of the main wall is a sculpted stone that might have served as an altar.

Intiwatana

This intrusive rock is the ceremonial centre of Machu Picchu. The word can be translated as sun (inti) year (wata) and was a place where the Incan astronomers studied the solar year to possibly determine the solstices and equinoxes. Many researchers believe the Incas might have used the angles of the Intiwatana as a directional landmark in order for them to find magnetic north. Whatever the case may be, it certainly was the ceremonial axis of great religious significance.

The plazas

There are four plazas in Machu Picchu located at different levels, yet they all feature classic Incan architecture in the form of their rectangular shape. The architects linked them together by staircases that were built into the construction of the terraces. The largest of these is the main square, which fulfilled religious and social functions.

Mausoleum or tomb

The enormous, leaning stone block supporting the lower part of the Temple of the Sun forms a grotto that had been decorated and prepared with exceptional skill and later used as a mausoleum. It was also a place where the people worshipped and made offerings to the mummies of the chief rulers. At its entrance you see a depiction of the earth goddess’s stair step symbol.

Doors

Although the doors found throughout Machu Picchu feature a variety of textures, sizes, and architectural styles, differing one from another, they all possess the traditional form of a trapezoid.

[Information courtesy of Prom Peru]

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