Amazing MachuPicchu in Cusco, a city founded by the Incas around the 14th century, is located in a majestic and incomparable natural environment between the Andean mountains and the Amazon rainforest in Peru.
This city is considered the most important material heritage left by the Inca civilization.
The gigantic walls and ramps of Machu Picchu give the impression of having been carved into the steep rocks.
These unique features motivated UNESCO to declare it a Cultural and Natural Heritage of Humanity in 1983, under the name of “Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu”.
This recognition is placed in the category of “mixed assets”, which represent exceptional natural and cultural values of the world.
The designation of Machu Picchu as a World Heritage Site has transformed the city and the region into a world-renowned tourist destination.
In addition, Machu Picchu was recognized as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in 2007 and again in 2021.
This recognition has increased its international fame and attracted numerous visitors to the Inca archaeological sites in Cusco, Peru.
Despite the historical, symbolic and touristic importance of Machu Picchu, it faces serious management problems that prevent it from being a model of tourist development.
Several specialists have pointed out this critical situation.
For example, Martorell (2004) criticizes the lack of a planning system until 1998 and the poor state management, influenced by political and economic interests.
Zan and Lusiani (2011) highlight that Machu Picchu is one of the most controversial heritage sites in the world.
The economic wealth generated by the increase in visitors has not translated into funding for the preservation of the site.
According to Arellano and Stuart (2010), Machu Picchu is considered an anti-model of sustainable development, since management, despite UNESCO protection, does not consider vulnerable populations affected by tourism development in Peru.
Today, Peru has become a national and international tourist destination, based mainly on its historical and cultural heritage.
The Cusco to Machu Picchu travel, in the Andean region inka original, stands out as an emblematic space and the main tourist attraction, thanks to its impressive pre-Hispanic and colonial legacy, visible in its architectural and artistic monuments in Cusco.
On the morning of July 24, 1911, Hiram Bingham III, director of the Yale Scientific Expedition to Peru, in the company of a Peruvian Army escort, Sergeant Andrés Carrasco, and a young guide, made one of the main Inca archaeological discoveries. from the 20th century in the Andes of Peru: the majestic Inca archaeological site of Machu Picchu.
Despite being known by local residents and travelers (cusco, sacred valley), the place had not been included in the written narratives about the Incas. Since then, Machu Picchu, the most royal of the Inca palaces (or of the Inca royal properties) that Machupicchu is still standing and intact, it has become the symbol par excellence of Andean culture and Peruvian national identity. Machu Picchu was built by the Inca emperor Yupanqui, later remembered by his descendants as Pachacuti, the great king who built the city of Cusco and reformed the Inca religion of the Inca empire. To understand an Inca site it is necessary to contextualize it within a sociopolitical framework.
wider; Often, the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu has not been understood because it is treated without such contextualization and, consequently, it has been perceived as a great mystery (Salazar 2004: 27). This is evidenced not only in publications intended for the general public, but also in those produced by archaeologists and historians.
The Inca burials allow us to observe aspects of life in the Inca citadel of Machu Piccho that are difficult to determine only by studying the monumental architecture. While the Inca remains recovered in the central zone are associated with Classic Inca-style materials, the tombs Bingham found in the irregular terrain surrounding the Inka site were characterized by containing grave goods not predominantly in style of imperial Inca Cusco. To understand these archaeological patterns, we must consider the identity of the individuals buried in the approximately 104 caves. and rock shelters used as Inca burial chambers that were studied by George Eaton and other members of the 1912 Peru-Cusco expedition.
In this essay and travel, Machu Picchu and its position within the imperial structure will be considered with a focus on the Inca funerary contexts – Cusco. This work provides greater clarity on the way in which power was exercised by the Inca elite, both in terms of their relationship with servants or servants (yanaconas) and state-directed artisans (mitimaes) and the factional tensions that gave shape power struggles between members of the Inca elite.
Travel in Cusco. Although the citadel of Machu Picchu is frequently used as a type of Inka site for the study of the imperial Inca state style, investigations of Inka cemeteries reveal a more complex pattern of each journey, reflecting particular activities of a dynastic descent group. –royal corporation– or panaca, as well as the multi-ethnic composition of the populations under its control. While the former can be seen in the known architecture and associated materials, the latter is more clearly reflected in the tomb contexts of the 174 individuals. George Eaton at Machu Picchu + Hiram Bingham at the Inca site of Machupicchu, which were documented by research in 1912 (Burger and Salazar 2004).
Travel to Cusco – researchers’ Peru, After a preliminary analysis of the Inka documentation and archaeological materials deposited at the Peabody Museum at Yale, we suggest that the Inka citadel of Machu Picchu should be considered a royal hacienda built by one of the royal panacas of Cusco (Burger y Salazar 1993; Salazar 2004 – Peru).
A panaca was a kin group descended from the main Inca ruler (known as Sapac Inca) and included to the male and female descendants of that individual, with the exception of his successor on the Inka throne, who founded his own panaca (Sarmiento de Gamboa 1944 [1572]). Written colonial sources provide us with information about the landscape around the Inca capital and how these lands were granted to the Inca ruler -Cusco-Peru, to his panaca and to the royal lineages (ayllu) (Rostworowski 1988: 182 Peru). The royal hacienda was created primarily to maintain an Inca ruler and his court during his lifetime and after his death (Niles 1988: 57 Peru). These royal groups controlled land around their royal estates and used what was produced on them for consumption, among other purposes. In the case of the Machu Picchu citadel, the surrounding agricultural area is relatively small, but it is suitable for growing corn.
Based on Spanish chronicles written in the early colonial period of Peru and Machupicchu, we know that the members of the panacas and their guests used the royal haciendas in the areas near Cusco as places of rest and relaxation, in addition to participating in activities such as hunting and feasts (Betanzos 1987 [1551-1557]: 189 Peru). In the Yucay-Cusco valley, there was intensive agriculture, especially corn cultivation, while in other haciendas the main crops were chili peppers and coca (Farrington 1995; Niles 2004: 55-57 Peru). Although we do not have complete knowledge about the functioning and organization of these royal properties, the architecture of Machu Picchu indicates that, in addition to agriculture, the members of the panaca were interested in the production of metallurgical objects, astronomical observations, and typical ritual activities. of the religious system of the Inca empire in Cusco.
Many travel in 1986, based on documents from 16th century Peru, John Rowe defined Machu Piccho as a royal Inka estate. Travels by Rowe associated the Inca archaeological site with the historical name of Pijchu or Pichu, a Quechua term for mountains (1987: 14). In these documents, all the lands at the bottom of the valley belonged to Inka “Yupangui” (ie, the Inca Pachacuti Yupanqui) and his panaca – Inaca Panaca Ayllo – (Sarmiento de Gamboa 1942: 141). The Inca Pachacuti Yupanqui conquered this region during his campaign to the areas of Vitcos and Vilcabamba (Cobo 1964 [1653]:135-137 Travel Cusco Peru). Apparently, took the land along the river for it. Rowe’s hypothesis regarding Machu Picchu being founded by Pachacuti is consistent with our preliminary analysis of pottery which indicates the complete absence of styles known as Killke and Lucre, among others from his travels to Cusco – Peru, which are the immediate antecedent of the imperial Inka style.
It is also significant that a large number of units architectural, around thirty, seem to have been used for religious activities (Bingham 1930: 56-66 Travel Peru; Buse de la Guerra 1978). This number is high in comparison with other royal estates in the sacred valley of the Incas such as Chincheros, Písac and Callachaca, which suggests that, from the beginning, Pachacuti’s panaca must have played an exceptionally important role in the ceremonial life of the Cusco elite.
According to Betanzos, one of Pachacuti-Travel Cusco’s sons, Yamque Yupanqui Topa, was said to have dedicated his life to religious rather than political activities (Betanzos 1987 [1551-1557] Travel Peru). If there were a special link between the panaca of Pachacuti and the Inka religious cult, this would explain the presence of unusual ritual constructions such as the Temple of the Three Windows in Machupicchu, whose architectural reference to the mythical origin of the Incas is unique in relation to other haciendas. real (Salazar 2004: 36 Travel Cusco).
Given its apparent function as a royal hacienda for the panaca of Pachacuti, it is not surprising that Machu Picchu was built with the design and stonework patterns associated with the Inka elite, still visible in many of Cusco’s surviving palaces and temples. . The finest architecture in Machu Picchu is concentrated in the spaces dedicated to travel, walking, ceremonial activities, and in the residences of the elite (Salazar and Burger 2004b Travel Cusco). The latter present the classic form of architecture known as court, which corresponds to rectangular complexes with a single entrance, an open central patio and several roofed buildings with interior spaces for various activities of travel to Machupicchu, Cusco, Sacred Valley of the Incas.
