Machu Picchu Facts
Machu Picchu Facts
Machu Picchu Facts
Where it’s located: in the cloud forest of the Andes Mountains, in southeastern Peru, South America.
Who built it?: The Incan Emperor Pachacutec ordered its construction.
When was Machu Picchu built?: in the mid-15th century A.D.
When was Machu Picchu abandoned? Probably 100 years after its construction, most likely during the time of the Spanish conquest, sometime between 1533-1536.
Who discovered it and when? The American history professor, Hiram Bingham, in 1911.
How does it rank as a site to visit in S America?: It is the most visited archaeological site in South America, is Peru’s #1 tourist attraction and in 2007 was voted one of the new “Seven Wonders of the World.”
How many people visit per year? Nearly one million. The Peruvian government has recently limited visitors to 2,500 per day. Before that, sometimes twice that amount would visit during the high season (May through September).
Is it worth the visit? If you can only visit one place in South America and are interested in getting a sense of the Andes and of the largest indigenous empire ever to have existed on the continent—by all means, Machu Picchu is the one place to visit. Since you have to travel to Cusco to get there, you get double bang for your buck, as Cusco is one of the most interesting cities on the planet.
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Pachacutec: Incan Emperor Who Created Machu Picchu
Pachacutec: The Incan Emperor Who Built Machu Picchu
By Kim MacQuarrie
(Excerpt from the book, Machu Picchu: Song of Stone)
According to Inca oral history, in the early part of the 15th century an Inca king arose who would not only revolutionize the entire Andean world but who would also create some of the finest architectural monuments ever known. At the time, the Incas lived within a small kingdom centered around the valley of Cuzco, one of many such small kingdoms in the Andes and on the coast. The Incas told the Spaniards that, at the time, they were led by an old Inca king named Viracocha Inca. Faced with an approaching army from the powerful kingdom of the Chancas, the Inca ruler fled, leaving his adult son, Cusi Yupanqui, behind. The latter quickly took charge, raised an army, and somehow miraculously defeated the invaders. Cusi Yupanqui then deposed his father, arranged for his own coronation, and changed his name to Pachacutec, a Quechua word that means “earth-shaker” or “cataclysm,” or “he who turns the world upside down.” The name was a prescient one, for Pachacutec would soon turn the status quo of the Andes entirely upside down.
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FX Channel Developing 10-12-Part Series on book, “The Last Days of the Incas” by Kim MacQuarrie
(Author Kim MacQuarrie at the Inca ruins of Pisac in the Sacred Valley of the Incas, Peru)
FX Developing Limited Series About The Fall Of The Inca Empire
Deadline Hollywood
By NELLIE ANDREEVA
April 2, 2013
FX is adding another project to its growing slate of event limited series. The cable network is developing Conquistadors, an adaptation of the Kim MacQuarrie book, The Last Day’s Of The Incas. Written by producer Nicholas Osborne in his writing debut, Conquistadors tells the story of Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro, two Spanish Conquistadors who above all odds conquered the Incan empire of 10 million with just 168 men, and Manco Inca and Cura Occlo, two teenage Incan royal lovers, who led one of the greatest rebellions in history. Osborne is executive producing with Scott Rosenbaum, who serves as showrunner, and Underground Films’ Trevor Engelson.
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Possible Mausoleum with Gold, Silver & Mummies Discovered at Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu Inkari Research Institute discovers Inca mausoleum with large quantities of gold and silver. However, the [Peruvian] Ministry of Culture has stalled the project.
Rumbos
Feb 8, 2013
(Translated by Kim MacQuarrie)
Who would believe it? Millions of tourists and thousands of archaeologists have walked before the walls that hide perhaps the best kept secret of Peruvian archeology: the final resting place of the Inca [emperor] Pachacutec.
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Yale At Last Returns Final Machu Picchu Artifacts to Peru
Yale University’s and Peru’s flags flying in front of the Casa Concha Museum in Cusco, Peru
Nov 12, 2012
Yale Daily News
Earlier today, Yale quietly returned the third and final batch of thousands of Machu Picchu artifacts to Peru, marking an end to the years-long dispute between Peru and Yale that led to a lawsuit four years ago.
The touchdown of today’s 127-box shipment was the final of three deliveries, which was financed by Yale. The University shipped the first fraction of the artifacts in March 2011 and the second last December. Yale and Peru resolved the lawsuit in November 2010, when the University agreed to return the pottery shards and other artifacts that Yale archaeologist Hiram Bingham III recovered during trips to Machu Picchu between 1911 and 1916. Tensions grew over the ownership of the artifacts and culminated in December 2008 when Peru sued Yale over the relics.
The dispute lasted years, garnering national media attention and responses from the Yale community.
Though the Peruvian government threatened to sue University President Richard Levin personally in 2008, Peruvian Ambassador to the United States Harold Forsyth presented Levin with the “Orden del Sol,” or the “Great Cross” grade of the Order “The Sun of Peru” last September.
Many of the artifacts are currently on display at the Casa Concha Museum in Cusco, Peru.
Yale Agrees To Return Machu Picchu Artifacts to Peru
Peru President Says Yale to Return Inca Artifacts
Nov 20, 2010
The Associated Press
LIMA, Peru — Peru’s president announced Friday that Yale University has agreed to return thousands of artifacts taken away from the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu nearly a century ago.
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Machu Picchu 100th Anniversary Likely To Lack Yale’s Artifacts
Machu Picchu Centennial Likely To Lack Yale Artifacts
A Peruvian couple admires an Incan aribalo vase in a Lima museum
Yale Daily News
May 13, 2010
With the 100th anniversary of Hiram Bingham’s discovery of the Inca archeological treasure Machu Picchu approaching, Peru’s Chamber of Tourism is preparing to celebrate — but without many of the site’s most precious artifacts, which remain in Yale’s collection…
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Did Hiram Bingham Discover Machu Picchu Artifacts–Or Buy Them?
Hiram Bingham at Machu Picchu in 1912
Bingham Didn’t Dig Up The Yale Huacos –He Just Bought Them
August 6, 2009
Caretas
By Nicholas Asheshov
Here in Urubamba Hiram Bingham’s reputation has taken a knock in the run-up to the centennial of the discovery in 1911 of Machu Picchu.
The revisionists are saying that Bingham was not just a persistent explorer but also, frankly, a humbug.
Bingham’s economical use of the truth has been compounded by the poorly-advised refusal of Yale University and its Peabody Museum of Natural History to return, as promised, what Bingham’s Yale expeditions dug up in the Vilcabamba 1912-15.
The Peruvian government is taking Yale to court but they’re not pushing it.
Here’s why. None of the good pieces in the Yale Machu Picchu collection were actually dug up by Yale archaeologists.
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Ancient Painting Discovered on Giant Rock at Machu Picchu
(Note: Rock art in Peru is fairly common, due to the thousands of years that humans have inhabited the area. While images of the presumed, pigment-based Machu Picchu “painting” have not yet been released, above is one of many petroglyphs that exist in the Majes Valley in Southern Peru, about 1oo miles nw of Arequipa. See also map at end of article–KM)
UCA Professor Finds Ancient Rock Painting in Peru
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
April 17, 2009
CONWAY – A University of Central Arkansas professor said Thursday that he has discovered an ancient rock painting at an Inca burial site in the Peruvian Andes and believes the work could be anywhere from 500 to 2,000 years old.
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Ex-Peruvian First Lady Slams Yale Over Machu Picchu Artifacts
Eliane Karp-Toledo and her husband, Alejandro Toledo, at his inauguration in 2001 at Machu Picchu
Peruvian Blasts Yale
Yale Daily News
April 7, 2009
As a crowd of students, faculty and even a few Peruvians hissed and clapped, Eliane Karp-Toledo, the former first lady of Peru, called for the immediate return of all Inca artifacts housed at Yale last night.
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