Machu Picchu Essay

“On a globe it looks like a swollen California and within that space [there] are 20,000 foot peaks, the world’s deepest canyon […], unmapped Amazon jungle and the driest desert on earth,” Mark Adams explains the descriptions of Machu Picchu. (Engineering) The inhabitants in Machu Picchu, the mountain established in Peru, adapted to its’ geography by building a stable foundation, communicating with different strategies and providing adequate fresh water for the community. Machu Picchu is considered one of the most beautiful and enigmatic ancient sites making it one of the biggest tourist attractions. It is located in an isolated area where it is invisible from below and surrounded by agricultural terraces providing sufficient resources to feed the population. It is perched 8,000 feet above sea level to the right in the Peruvian Andes. (Lewis) What makes Machu Picchu so outstanding is that it is the only Inca site that’s still relatively intact.

The Incas were able to build Machu Picchu so stably that some parts of it still remain to this day after hundreds of years. These Inca buildings have endured because of the sturdy foundations, the slope, the interconnecting stones and the tight joints even under harsh terraces. The major buildings including the Plaza, which was a very important part of Machu Picchu, went underground 9 feet. (Mark) The top three feet were of rich topsoil along with a sandy, gravelly-type soil underneath it. Situated underground stood the profoundly known drainage system. The depth of this building helped maintain its shape and form. The main material cooperated in the making was granite, which turned color with age into a dark grey. Despite Machu Picchu being located among steep slopes that are constantly be...

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...still yielding a water supply after all these centuries of abandonment.” This shows the Inca’s forward thinking because they knew the importance of having and providing adequate fresh water for the community. It was the highest Inca standards. (China 180)

Machu Picchu was something extraordinary that the Incas built. “It’s a place where there’s still much to learn; it’s complex and fascinating in so many ways—still open to discovery in that sense,” said a tourist. They, who didn’t have technology to depend on, figured out how to build a huge city mostly out of granite that was stable enough to still be standing, they accomplished this achievement without the use of a written language but with other techniques and they provided enough water for a population of over hundreds with the impressive invention of an organized water system. Now that is simply incredible.