Hopefully another picture or two
Well I got up at 6 am this morning in order to get up into the ruins before the crowds start to arrive. My aim for the morning was to hike up to the Gate of the Sun which is the last leg of the Inca Trail, the Gate being the first point that people hiking the entire Trail (4 or 5 days worth of walking) get to see Machu Picchu. It's a climb of over 300 metres over several kilometres which in itself would be difficult, not taking into account the fact that the air is getting steadily thinner as you go up. There is a marked difference in breathlessness from 2,400 metres (where the hotel is) and 2,700 metres where the Gate of the Sun is.
The hike was well worth it as the view from up there is breathtaking. It strikes you as you're climbing how advanced a civilisation the Incas were. These structures were built about half a millennium ago yet they are still for the most part standing despite being in an earthquake zone. The stones were not moved great distances - they quarried all of the stones from the hillside, finding inherent weaknesses in the stone and exploiting them to break off bits. They would make small holes where there was a vein in the stone and wedge bits of wood in the holes. They would then pour water into the holes, the water being absorbed by the wood which made it expand and push the stone apart at the vein. Every piece of stone would be smoothed and shaped by hammering at it with fist-sized lumps of obsidian or other hard stones.
The earth for the fertile terraces which they used to grow corn and other crops in however was transported many miles from more fertile areas by hand. The Incas never used pack animals and as such had to transport anything they needed by foot. They had developed a fairly sophisticated understanding of astronomy and several of the temples had ways of calculating when the various solstices were due, represented by the shadow cast by the carved stone sundials they created. On the way up I passed dozens of people who had finished the Inca Trail and were heading down into the main ruins of Machu Picchu.
The ruins were still fairly quiet because the buses from Aguas Calientes (the town where the train from Cuzco arrives) had not started, and the trains wouldn't arrive until about 10:30. It was quite a trek up to the gate, and I finally made it up there around 8 or so. The view was breathtaking in both directions, and hopefully I have succeeded in uploading two pictures here:
The view from the Gate of the Sun back down to Machu Picchu and with Waynu Picchu to its right.
The view from a little further down the hill
The hike was well worth it as the view from up there is breathtaking. It strikes you as you're climbing how advanced a civilisation the Incas were. These structures were built about half a millennium ago yet they are still for the most part standing despite being in an earthquake zone. The stones were not moved great distances - they quarried all of the stones from the hillside, finding inherent weaknesses in the stone and exploiting them to break off bits. They would make small holes where there was a vein in the stone and wedge bits of wood in the holes. They would then pour water into the holes, the water being absorbed by the wood which made it expand and push the stone apart at the vein. Every piece of stone would be smoothed and shaped by hammering at it with fist-sized lumps of obsidian or other hard stones.
The earth for the fertile terraces which they used to grow corn and other crops in however was transported many miles from more fertile areas by hand. The Incas never used pack animals and as such had to transport anything they needed by foot. They had developed a fairly sophisticated understanding of astronomy and several of the temples had ways of calculating when the various solstices were due, represented by the shadow cast by the carved stone sundials they created. On the way up I passed dozens of people who had finished the Inca Trail and were heading down into the main ruins of Machu Picchu.
The ruins were still fairly quiet because the buses from Aguas Calientes (the town where the train from Cuzco arrives) had not started, and the trains wouldn't arrive until about 10:30. It was quite a trek up to the gate, and I finally made it up there around 8 or so. The view was breathtaking in both directions, and hopefully I have succeeded in uploading two pictures here:
The view from the Gate of the Sun back down to Machu Picchu and with Waynu Picchu to its right.
The view from a little further down the hill
posted by Ken at 7:20 pm
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