"Living On The Edge" At Machu Pichu

 The fascinating mystery city that is Machu Pichu, was only officially discovered by the American Anthropologist Hiram Bingham on 24 July 1911. Bingham was a leading figure in the National Geographical Society and Yale University. He came across the site by chance after a long period of exploration. The "ciudad perdida" or lost city at Machu Pichu was the last refuge of the Incas during the Spanish conquest under the command of Pizarro.

The city is situated 2 450 m above sea level in the Peruvian Andes. The area is known as the Vilcabamba, once densely covered in forests. The Inca Ruler, Pachacuti was behind the construction of Machu Pichu on the mountain from which it takes its name. From the city, the Incas could observe what went on in the Urubamba Valley below. Accordingly the Incas could ensure the strategic position of the city from a breathtaking precipice of 400 m above the river, observing any activity below.

The plateau on which the city was built was also the place where most the construction materials were sourced. The rock quarry in the city is still there. The finely dressed building blocks used in the construction of Machu Pichu were smaller than those used in the Inca constructions elsewhere. About 140 buildings were erected in the city. Most were houses and some temples. Specialists estimate that about 5 000 workmen probably worked to build Machu Pichu which could only inhabit about 750 to 1 000 persons. Interestingly, only 200 to 250 skeletons were found during subsequent excavations.

The rock blocks quarried were finely dressed. The heavy granite is extremely difficult to cut even with modern technology. It is speculated that the Incas, who did not know the wheel, split the rock by using wooden wedges. Holes were drilled into the rocks and wet wooden wedges inserted in the holes. The quarrymen then waited until the wedges froze. The ice having a larger volume than water created fissures in the rock. How the smooth finishes on the faces of the blocks were achieved however cannot be explained.

A feature of the city are the waterways and irrigation systems and many flights of steps, there are more than a hundred staircase some with more than a 100 steps carved in the solid rock and still used. Some of the aqueducts and waterways are more than 600 years old and used to demonstrate to modern day tourists on how it was used in the past. These were constructed with a minimum of number of components to ensure sustainability. Waterways were carved into the solid rock to eliminate binding and minimising the loss of water.

The Incas were incredibly creative engineers and the agricultural terraces at Machu Pichu were amply provided with water. Water was sourced from fountains called "pachas" and interconnected water channels that unite and form ponds are found in Manchu Pichu.

The original building roofs were of thatch on timber and obviously perished. The buildings in current day Machu Pichu are without roofs. The walls of the buildings are slightly sloped and the base is wider than the upper parts. This technique was also common in European constructions of the time. The Incas used dry stone technique to build the city. No binding agent was used and the dressed rock blocks were perfecctly stacked together as in an intricate puzzle. Some of the blocks are so tightly fitted that the blade of a knife cannot be inserted in the joints. The well-thought-out urban layout and the presence of a "pata", which is a park-like level area in the centre is a feature of the city.

Those who lived near the areas of the city near the precipices clearly had to have a head for heights and it was a case of “living the edge" literally.

Pieter Rautenbach