Photo Courtesy: PromPerú

Machu Picchu is located at 2,350 m.a.s.l., high above the Urubamba River, on the saddle that joins two mountains: Machu Picchu (or oldest peak in Quechua) and Huayna Picchu (youngest peak). The ruins are split into two major areas: the agricultural zone and the urban zone.

The agricultural zone is made up of terracing for agricultural purposes, that is, by large and small platforms located in the mountain slopes. The urban zone is made of two big architectonic sets, which develop following an East-West orientation, and feature temples, squares, royal tombs, and staircases (which total some 3 thousand steps), all of which have been carved to an extraordinary degree of perfection. Over the citadel looms the Huayna Picchu mountain, which can be climbed up a steep stone-paved trail.

Buildings in Machu Picchu are basically one-story, rectangular constructions, with trapezoidal doors and windows, typically Inca-style. Indeed, the whole citadel uses the Inca architectural classic style: construction with polished walls of regular shape, with junctions so perfect that not even a knife fits in between.

It is important to notice that the Incas, although they did know about the round shape (the Inti god was represented in that manner), they never applied such a shape. The mobilization of the enormous blocks of stones is a mystery. Nevertheless, it can be noted that although they never used the rounded shape they did utilized the incline plane. It is believe that they made use of thousands of men to push the stones up the incline. Sadly, the Incas did not leave any writings about that affect because the knowledge of writing was not known.

Until now it has not been possible to imagine how the engineering of the Inca civilization could move stone blocks of up to twenty tons to the top of Machu Picchu.

Architectonic Features


The original builders of Machu Picchu worked hard to obtain an architectural balance in a special and difficult place. They even used materials found nearby to adapt the buildings to several levels. There are two large sections: the agricultural sector on the south and the urban sector on the north. Both have been constructed on top of a natural division, taking advantage of the existence of a dry pit, the result of a geologic fault.

Agricultural Sector - 
The Inca Trail leads to the south section and divides it in two before arriving at the main entrance of the citadel. On one side of the mountain there are irrigation terraces of different types and sizes stretching horizontally along the mountain. Those on the upper zones of the entrance road were for agricultural purposes because they had flying stairs and were wider, compared to the lower terraces that prevented erosions caused by rain. There is only one water channel that goes to the section; apparently some straw-roofed rooms found there were used as storehouses (collpas). In this section you can find the Watch Tower and the Upper Cemetery and Ritual Rock. 

Urban Sector
 - This is a whole "U"-shaped citadel. It has two series of buildings next to each side of the square or Chaupipata, which lies on a north-south axis. In the urban sector there are lots of temples, groups of rooms and workshops. The most remarkable buildings and sculptures are the Temple of the Sun, the Main Temple, the Temple of the Three Windows, the Intihuatana, the Group of the Sacred Rocks, the Street of the Fountains, and the Mausoleum.

This text -as well as the others in this category- includes excerpts from Wikipedia and PromPeru.

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