It is said that for an addicted tourist, the world has no limits, no frontiers. Discovering new places which delight the hungry looks of knowledge and the joy of the unknown is the eternal wish of humans that don’t stop to wonder of the privileges offered by nature or made by man. Such a privilege is Machu Picchu, one of the world’s archeological wonders.
Only 130km away from Cuzco – the old Inca Capital, Machu Picchu was rediscovered in 1911 by the archeology Hiram Bingham and his ruins are one of the places that every tourist wants to see at least one time in life. The origin of the city goes lost in the mist of time, its construction is probably dating from the 15th century, and the way how it was made is still an enigma for all researchers. The myths show that Machu Picchu in translation “the old peak” was considered a sacred place, transformed by the Incas in a wonder of 5 square mile, surrounded by suitable land for agriculture, by many rivers and natural delimitated from the rest of the landscape.
Machu Picchu totals around 200 buildings of different forms, it is a huge labyrinth which hides a lot of enigmas and his architecture has similarities with the European myth of the labyrinth of Dedalus.
The citadel is divided in two sectors: the agricultural (constructed in terraces) and the urban in which are main squares, temples, palaces, storehouses, the two sectors are split by a dry ditch as a result of a geographic fault line. The agricultural sector is surrounded by terraces of different types and sizes which had the function to grow crops and to halt the erosion caused by rain.
The urban sector houses the most important constructions of the Inca city and is U- shaped. The main buildings in this sector are as following : The temple of the sun – a construction shaped in a semi-circle and built on solid rock with two trapezoidal windows and the door in the north side; The Intiwatana is a stone located on a hill made up of several terraces, with his four corners directed to the four cardinal points and with the specific function of time measuring by using sunlight and shadow, but it also served as an altar; The group of the sacred rock, The temple of the three windows, The main temple, The Doors – are here a common sight, all have the same trapezoidal shape but they vary in texture, size and architectural style. In the south part of the city, between the Temple of the Sun and The Royal Palace are a series of fountains, the only water sources for the residents of Machu Picchu. The enormous stone that holds up the Temple of the Sun has a large crack in the bottom part, which was decorated and used as a tomb. In the interior of the Tomb are niches, monolithic pillars and other accessories used for religious means.
The Machu Picchu labyrinth reflects a symbol of life, where the way never goes back, but always before. Inspired by the shells spirals, the labyrinth has the connotation of fight with time and is by its own the real prisoner.
