About Machu Picchu

Some excellent overviews on Machu Picchu, with a slightly different focus, are found under The Discovery and in conjunction with the traveling exhibit Machu Picchu: Unveiling the Mystery of the Incas.

"Winter Palace" by Fergus M. Bordewich, Smithsonian magazine (March 2003). Excellent popular article on Machu Picchu, also touching on the Yale exhibit. There's also a short HTML summary, with the photographs of Jeffrey Aaronson. Bordewich quotes Yale curator Richard Burger promise:

"The exhibition will change the way people see Machu Picchu ... We're going to break through the myths. The exhibition will remove Machu Picchu from the 'world's-most-mysterious places' category and show us the humanity of the Incas, the rhythms of daily life for both the elite and the common folks."

"Machu Picchu: A manmade masterpiece blends into nature in the Andes" by Elías J. Mujica, from UNESCO's World Heritage Review (June 2000). This is a somewhat dry but full overview of the site, with particular attention to conservation and protection issues.

"Virtual Tours"—manipulable panoramas and some objects—from Studio360. The gimmick is simple, but engaging. Other such tours are found in their Peru section.

NPR Morning Edition: "The Geographic Century: Machu Picchu" (January 18, 1999). Review of Bingham's discovery and some of the solar theories. If it doesn't work you can load the complete show and fast forward to 1:02:08.

"How Geographic Re-Created Machu Picchu for New Map" by D.L. Parsell, National Geographic News (April 2002). How Robert Giusti created the fold-out map/panorama appearing in the May 2002 issue ("as accurate a portrayal ... as is humanly possible"). Includes a lot of good details on construction. Unfortunately, the map itself is not online, only images of the process that resulted in it and a few details.

Decent Machu Picchu description (appearing all over the web), from The Civilization of the Incas, Gwen Ackerman's 6th Grade project. Includes a lesson plan.

Machu Picchu section of Mark Rose's September 1999 Archaeology article/travelogue "Exploring the Inca Heartland." Rose expresses frustration at his guide:

"Unfortunately, our local guide embarked on a rambling discourse, much of which was his low opinion of Hiram Bingham. According to him, Bingham had found much gold when he excavated at Machu Picchu and had spirited it out of the country. It was difficult to listen to this nonsense..."

Wikipedia: Machu Picchu. As you may know, Wikipedia is a sort of "open source" encyclopedia. Anyone can edit it, anytime. In general this works. In this case, you have two competing "ideas" of Machu Picchu, trying to coexist in the same entry. The dominant influence is sober and history, but New Age elements creep in:

"Some believe that Machu Picchu sits upon one of the outpouring fonts of Earth energy with the Temple of the Moon at its center. The Incas believed that the solid rock of the Earth should not be cut and so built this city from rock quarried from loose boulders found in the area."

Forgotten Wonder: Macchu Piccu. Not much here, but I'm a big fan of the containing site, Alaa K. Ashmawy's Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and its annex Other Wonders.

Machu Picchu: City of Magic from infoperu.com. Lengthy, poorly-translated, with a lot of speculative nonsense.

Drawing labeled in French from Daniel Duguay's Machu Picchu: la cité perdue des Incas .

Brief, improperly-sourced description by Meghan A. Porter, from Minnesota State University, Mankato. Although above the level of a "fan site," it does not reach the level that a college-level resource of this type should surpass.

The New Seven Wonders believes it was built in the 5th Century.