Machu Picchu, City of Wonder

Sun rising on the City of Wonder

(Reis) As we stepped into the range of sight of this city in ruins, I believe all of our jaws dropped simultaneously. There, in front of us, was the majestic Lost City of the Incas. I felt like a king on his throne, with a leopard (or llama!) skin throw rug below me. A very large, stony, architectural throw rug. But a metaphorical throw rug nonetheless. Surrounding Machu Picchu were the sheer, green, rocky Andes Mountains. It was extremely beautiful. As we slowly but surely made our way through the logical maze of the Incan city, some things really stood out to me. One of them, the masonry. The Incas SURE didn’t take the easy path. The rocks they used for walls were all cut and placed at weird angles but fitting together perfectly. Our guide, Francis, told us to find just one right angle. We searched far and wide, but we were stumped, there just weren’t any. The way they looked, made it seem like an ancient Melissa & Doug jigsaw. But it is also hard for the restoration workers. When they find a wall is un-sturdy they make a specific drawing plan of the wall, take it down and rebuild it. Talk about a puzzle.

The other thing that struck me was the way they designed everything for Solar Worship. The city of Machu Picchu was not placed on a mountain in the middle of nowhere just because. It was put there to gather the most sunlight throughout the year. The window of a temple was put in a way, so that on the Summer Solstice, the sun would shine directly into the window. These Incas were incredibly precise. The Main Entrance perfectly framed a nearby mountain. And every door or niche’s angle was exactly 13 degrees. Why? Because that is the latitude of Cusco, the Incan capital. How did they find that out? They put a vertical stake into the ground at noon on the Equinox. Then, they measured the angle the shadow made, and of course, they got 13 degrees. The details the Incas did to make Machu Picchu more perfect is extraordinary. I came to it thinking the city was rocks on a mountain. But, boy, was I wrong. Machu Picchu is a spectacular natural and man-made site.