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Machu Picchu – The Next Morning

The next morning, we decided to tackle Machu Picchu again, to see what we missed our first day.  Altho it felt like we saw it all the afternoon before, we soon discovered that there was a lot more – this morning we primarily focused on what I called the lower part of the ruins.  This is a long post, but hopefully, you’ll find it worthwhile.

Ancient Neighborhood

Just as a brief reminder, this is sort of where we left off yesterday.  This is a bigger, broader view of the ruins that haven’t been addressed in any way.  There’s a lot of texture going on that appeals to me.

Steps Up

This image shows you what were considered steps from one terrace level to the next.  I would say these were the more rustic variety, altho some might consider all aspects of these ruins rustic!

Interior Architecture

This piece of sculpted structure was found on an interior wall.  There is a hole that was somehow cut in the center (see image below) – amazing considering the lack of tools that the Incan people had.  No one really knows what this was used for – part of a door hinge, holder for a torch, or ?????

Down Looking Up

Llama Changing Address

These are a couple of llamas that we saw this morning.  The people now responsible for Machu Picchu did try to have both llamas and alpacas up at Machu Picchu, but the alpacas didn’t do well here due to the climate up here, so that now only the llamas are left.  We saw these two llamas (see above and below) on a terrace above a bit ago, but as we were exploring this lower area, they decided to change location and passed us by as they changed their address!

Out for a Stroll

Temple of 3 Windows thru the Window

One of the things that I loved about Machu Picchu from a photographer’s perspective were the cool shots that existed by shooting thru doors and windows.  This was no exception – looking thru a window at a portion of the Temple of 3 Windows.

Skinny Stairs

Another great photographic feature at Machu Picchu is the various stairways, and there are lots of them!  This one is really skinny.  I don’t think this one actually went anywhere, and was sort of closed to us exploring it.  But, it does make

a pretty cool photo!

 

Ancient Alter

We were told this was most likely some sort of alter.  It was in a sort of inside/outside area and felt like a sort of quiet reflective place…..as long as the alter wasn’t used for sacrifices!

Temple of 3 Windows

This is the temple that you saw a few images ago thru a window of another structure.  It’s not common at all to see that number of windows lined up next to each other in any building here.

Stairs out of Solid Rock

These stairs are one of the most amazing things here at Machu Picchu.  They look really smoothed out.  They are just sort of in the middle of a rock (the rock they were carved out of).  Again, how did the Inca’s do this without any of the tools you’d typically need for something like this.

Urubamba River below Ruins

As I wandered thru the ruins, I noticed that in this one place I could see the Urubamba River on both sides of the river as it flows thru the town of Agua Calientes.  You can see part of the ruins, the Andes, the river and a teensy bit of the town (look toward the lower right of the image).

The Road to Machu Picchu

These little strips of light color in the green are parts of the winding road that we took (in a bus) up to and down from Machu Picchu.  I included this to give you a better perspective about how remote it truly is.  Some folks hike up this way (it’s different from the 4-day hike).  There are rustic stairs/steps that lead up from one “strip” to the other.

Stairway to Floor 2

I mentioned before that some of the buildings did have 2 floors.  Here are the remains of one of those buildings, and you can see the remnants of an ancient stairway to the second floor.  I can’t really quite image how the second floor “worked” way back then – did it just surround the first floor (sort of like an ancient loft area around the perimeter of the walls) or did they put in a complete second floor?  It may be deemed to be a mystery for all time.

Better View of City Gate

On the way out of Machu Picchu, I looked up and could see the city gate much clearer this morning.  Somehow, it feels so appropriate that the very first entry to Machu Picchu by Hiram Bingham back in 1911 is our last view of this magnificent piece of history.

 

Enjoy!