From things it had, to things it didn't have, and the mystery behind it all, join me as
I reveal to you some interesting facts and history about Machu Picchu!
8.
Where Are The Marketplaces?
Machu Picchu is arguably one of the most interesting and revealing places in the world.
Why?
Because it's through this city that we got to take a look inside the Incan Empire.
This was a tribe that ruled a lot of South America for some time, including Peru, Bolivia,
Chile, Argentina, and more.
And yet, for a while, we didn't know that much about them, until we found Machu Picchu.
This was one of the biggest cities in the empire, and as such, we're able to discern
a lot from it.
And yet, one of the biggest shocks of the discovery of the city is one that flies in
the face of virtually every other civilization in the world.
How so?
Well, in this city, and apparently in all the other cities in the empire, they didn't
have marketplaces.
Which makes you wonder how they bought food, traded items, or even just interacted with
one another.
Numerous civilizations built their cities around a marketplace, yet the Incas didn't,
why?
And before you say something like, "maybe that's why they aren't around anymore", that's
not true.
They were driven out by Spanish invaders.
Before then, they ruled for hundreds of years without issue.
So what is the explanation for this major mystery?
We honestly don't know.
It's very possible that the Incas were ones who did their buying and trading in different
ways.
Ways that wouldn't require a marketplace per se.
What they were...may just be lost to time.
But it is a very curious thing, because again, every other society had them, and we base
all of our societies today around a place to get food and water and items.
So why didn't they?
What made their societies work without them?
We may never know.
7.
The Vastness Of The Incas While Machu Picchu may be a focal point for
the nation, the Incas themselves are just as much a mystery in certain ways as other
early civilizations.
Especially when you consider that they not only made Machu Picchu, but a vast empire
that many are still discovering, or should I say "rediscovering" to this day.
And everything we find about them is that they were much more organized and intelligent
than some are willing to admit.
If you're curious about where and when they came from, that would be the Cusco region
of Peru in the 13th century.
But they didn't just stay in Peru, they went across much of what is now South America and
made a vast empire for themselves.
One that is said to be about a 300,000 square mile area to house everyone in.
And this included going into other tribes and assimilating them into the culture at
large.
By the time they were done "growing" they had anywhere between 3 and 12 MILLION people
within their empire.
There's honestly no way of knowing which is the real number, or even if it was somewhere
in the middle.
They lorded over their real, which they dubbed, “the Four Corners Together,” and within
that realm were 20,000 miles of roads, provincial governors, granaries and storehouses, high-altitude
agriculture, and an economic system called mit'a, where citizens provided labor, goods,
or military service to the state in exchange for food and protection.
So what happened to the Inca?
Well, that technically isn't too much of a mystery.
The answer there is the Spaniards.
During that time, Francisco Pizarro and the Spanish Conquistadors came and fought against
the native tribes in order to get treasures and more for Spain, as well as claim lands
for their own.
The Inca were defeated, but unlike certain other cultures, they fought to the bitter
end.
All the way up until 1972 when their last great city was captured.
Still though, their remains and their homes are scattered across the forests of South
America, and they're still being discovered to this day.
Not unlike Machu Picchu.
6.
When Was Machu Picchu Rediscovered?
Sometimes, you find the best archaeological finds in the weirdest of places and times.
And sometimes, these finds aren't ones you simply dig up, but rather, just stumble upon.
After all, if you don't know where to look for something, it might just go unnoticed
for hundreds of years.
Don't believe me?
Well, I present to you, Machu Picchu.
This complex was made by the Incas as we noted, and can be found on a mountainside in Peru.
Which explains why many people never found it, including some conquering armies like
the Conquistadors.
Which is actually rather impressive given that this site is 126 square miles in area.
That's very big, and yet, it wasn't rediscovered until 1911.
As for who went and found it again, that would be due to an American named Hiram Bingham.
Who according to sources went to the country, then traveled by mule and foot to reach this
place.
But get this, the locals only called it a "retreat" that native leaders went to.
Likely meaning that they didn't know what they had stumbled upon.
Can you imagine that?
Going to a place and called it a "retreat", not knowing that you were literally in the
annals of history?
Yeah, that'd be a shock.
Anyway, once Bingham found the place (he was looking for ruins initially), he actually
went back to America to get more funding, and struck a deal with the President of Peru
to help excavate the site with local labor to reveal the city as we know it now.
There is...one funny catch though.
You see, Bingham worked out the deal with Peru to dig there, and be there legally.
But some people thought he was "ruining" the land after a while, including stealing artifacts
and such.
Which he was...and he wasn't.
He was taking items to be sure, but he was doing it under the laws of Peru.
These laws state that any artifacts that are found are owned by the discoverer.
Which Bingham was in most cases.
That didn't stop the press and people from rising up and basically kicking him out about
4 months after he started.
More excavations were done in 1914 and 1915, and he got to be a part of those as well despite
local backlash.
Oh well.
Fun fact, the finding of Machu Picchu made Bingham so famous that a highway up to Machu
Picchu is named after him, and he eventually became a governor and a senator for the state
of Connecticut.
Not a bad life, eh?
Before we dive into more facts about Machu Picchu, be sure to like the video and subscribe
to the channel, that way you don't miss any of our weekly videos.
5.
We Honestly Don't Know Why Machu Picchu Was Built
Most times, when you hear about a massive archaeological site, you think about how it
was constructed, and the purpose of it.
Yet despite the size and artifacts of Machu Picchu...we still don't know why it was built
there, or its purpose to the Incan Empire as a whole.
We do know some things obviously, such as how it was mid 15th century give or take,
and that it was likely built after the Incan Empire was truly formed via the defeat of
Chancay Tribe.
And it MIGHT have even been built by one of the major leaders of the Empire in Pachacuti.
But that last bit is still speculative.
Just like the whole site is speculative as to its purpose.
There have been guesses as to what it is and what it isn't of course.
A popular one is that this was a personal retreat for Pachacuti and his family and possibly
closest followers.
There was even a lawsuit brought up by the descendants of Pachacuti to try and get their
lands back, including a "retreat" that was known as Picchu.
Another possibility was that it was a Temple of sorts.
A place where those in the Incan faith would come to on a pilgrimage in order to connect
with the gods.
There are some who even say that this place was a "raising ground" for certain young ladies
who would be sacrificed to the gods when they came of age.
Yet, bones found in Machu Picchu show that both men and women lived on the site, and
could've been workers.
Workers for what?
We honestly don't know, and new clues aren't provide enough to give hints as to what the
site honestly is.
4.
How Did The Conquistadors Not Find The Place?
So as we alluded to earlier, despite the Spanish Inquisition (no one expects the Spanish Inquisition!!!)
basically taking out the entire Incan empire over the course of a few decades (which took
that long because the Incas did guerrilla tactics and used the territory to their advantage),
they never did find Machu Picchu.
But why is that?
After all, it was one of their more important sites, or at least that is what we infer via
the artifacts and other things we've found at the site.
But if it was so important, shouldn't the Spaniards have found it?
Not exactly...you see, not unlike today, if you don't know the terrain, and you don't
have the means, you're not going to find certain places.
Not unlike if you just go down a singular highway across a country, you're not going
to see all the little towns and villages that populate the nations.
For the Incas, once the Spaniards came to try and destroy their way of life, they actually
abandoned Machu Picchu.
Which is ironic because that meant that by the time they left it, it had only been around
for about 100 years.
Since no one was living there, and the various attacks never got close to where it was, the
Spaniards never had a reason to look for it.
Which is another reason it was so preserved by the time that Bingham had gotten there
in 1911.
3.
The War For Artifacts So...remember Hiram Bingham?
You know, the guy who helped rediscover Machu Picchu...was accused of stealing thousands
of artifacts?
Yeah, that guy.
Well, you ever wonder where those artifacts ended up?
That would be none other than Yale University.
They were studied there, and then put on display for everyone to see.
Which was great for the university, and to those who wanted to see the artifacts up close
and ask questions about them.
But for the people of Peru?
Yeah, not so much.
Even when Bingham came back to finish the excavations in 1914 and 1915, there were wars
going on behind the scenes about the artifacts he was finding.
This died down for a few decades, and then in 2003, Yale announced that they were going
to do a touring exhibit of the Machu Picchu artifacts.
When this was revealed, the people of Peru, including the President of the nation at the
time, decided that they were going to fight back.
They went around to anyone who would listen and begged them to bring the artifacts back
home.
Even going to the President of the United States and the Pope to have justice be done
in their eyes.
Eventually, an accord was reached, and by 2012, all the artifacts were returned, and
the UNSAAC-Yale International Center for the Study of Machu Picchu and Inca Culture in
Cusco was born.
A fitting compromise and ending to a confrontation many decades in the making.
2.
The City Was Built To Last Despite not knowing the full purpose of the
city of Machu Picchu, we can say a few things about it based on what's visible both in front
of our eyes, and what the city was built on.
And no, I don't mean the ground, but rather, the materials that were used to craft the
city itself.
You see, South America is known to have some rather disastrous natural disasters, one of
which is earthquakes.
In fact, earthquakes devastated certain other Incan cities in the past.
But when the engineers and stonemasons built up Machu Picchu, they made it so that no earthquake
could shake it down.
"Deep foundations and a sophisticated drainage system prevented landslides, while precise
stone carving allowed blocks to be placed tightly to one another without requiring mortar.
The white granite blocks, cut by direct hammering with primitive hand tools, are said to “dance”
during tremors and fall safely back into place, leaving the citadel largely undamaged over
a 500-year period."
That is an astounding piece of work, and it's further impressive considering some of the
various tools and materials that they wouldn't have had in the 1400's.
Showing that much like many other wonders of the world, if you have the time, the people,
and the planning, you can make things that are built to last.
1.
The Power Of Tourism Despite being lost for hundreds of years,
Machu Picchu has now become a key location not just in Peru, but in the world at large.
In 2007, it was dubbed one of the "New Wonders Of The World" because of its impressive construction
and its ability to stay intact for so long.
And like any structure that is impressive...people want to see it.
In fact, people from South America and all over the world come to see Machu Picchu.
Which is a bit of a problem technically.
You see, the site is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which means that it's protected by the
government and certain organizations to ensure that no damage comes to it.
So by law, only 2500 people per day are allowed to visit it.
But...that rule isn't exactly applied.
Because most times it's like 5000 people a day come to see it.
So now, the site is a bit overcrowded with tourists.
To combat this, the government aims to pour $30 million dollars into the site to try and
make it "more advanced" so people can see it from places like a visitors center without
having to be on the site itself.
Thanks for watching everyone!
What did you think about these facts and tidbits about Machu Picchu?
How much did you learn about the Incan Empire and their famous site from this video?
Which fact or historical reference surprised you the most?
Let me know in the comments below, be sure to subscribe, and I'll see you next time on
the channel!