What is Machu Picchu and who found it Machu Picchu is a true architectural gem. The beauty and mystery of its stone palaces is enhanced by the magnificent, almost virgin and abrupt geography colored green by exhuberant jungle flora. The constructions were built harmoniously on the narrow and uneven surface of a cliff surrounded by the precipices of the imposing Urubamba Canyon, where 400meters below, the river roars and meanders. Machu Picchu is located at 2.400 masl ( 7.847 fasl), on the top of a plateau located between two peaks. From these two, the smallest, the Huayna Picchu Is the one that defines the topography of the site. As centuries went by the original name of this ruins fell into oblivion. In fact, Machu Picchu is just a topographic denomination that means “Old Mountain” , while the Huayna Picchu means “Young Mountain”. In this case the translation must keep a correlation with the concept of volume so as to mean “major summit” and “mirror summit” respectively. Ever since its discovery en 1911, Machu Picchu has been a true and insoluble archaeological enigma. Even nowadays scholars are intrigued by its history and function, and it is possible that these mysteries will never be totally unraveled. The discovery Hiram Bingham, a north-American scholar who was leading an expedition from Yale University, discovered Machu Picchu on July 24th 1911. However, at the time, Hiram Bingham was mainly focused on finding Vilcabamba, the legendary capital of incas descendants, and bastion of the resistance against the Spanish from 1936 to 1572. While exploring the Urubamba Canyon, Bingham reached Mandorbamba, a desolated town where Melchor Arteaga a local farmer, told him that there were many ruins on the Machu Picchu Mountain. Yet reaching them meant climbing a steep covered with thick vegetation. Though skeptical –he knew
What is Machu Picchu and who found it Machu Picchu is a true architectural gem. The beauty and mystery of its stone palaces is enhanced by the magnificent, almost virgin and abrupt geography colored green by exhuberant jungle flora. The constructions were built harmoniously on the narrow and uneven surface of a cliff surrounded by
