Inca (Indigenous)
Machu Pikchu
Machu Picchu
“A city of stone the Inca raised on a ridge above the clouds”
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Photo: Draceane · CC BY-SA 4.0
Scenes
Meaning
Clouds drift below your feet, and terraced fields and stone walls follow the ridge toward the sky.
In Inca tradition and scholarship it is understood as a fifteenth-century Inca city on the heights, a sacred place turned toward the surrounding mountains and sky. Long wrapped in cloud, it was made known to the world once more.
Field notes
- Location
- Andes · Peru · S13.2° · W72.5°
- Best time
- Early morning in the dry season, May to September, when clouds drift along the ridge
- Getting there
- By train from Poroy (near Cusco) or Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes, then a shuttle bus up; entry is by reservation.
- Etiquette
- Visitors keep to the marked paths and follow the guidelines that protect the ruins.
Sources
- · UNESCO World Heritage
- · Encyclopaedia Britannica
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