Machu Picchu

We went to Machu Picchu in Peru for vacation.

 I'm going to show pictures of the Inca ruins in this blogs and in the next one will show pictures of some other sights we saw like llamas and cathedrals.  Here we are on top of Machu Picchu with the Inca buildings behind us on the tops of these mountains.

 In this shot you can see how perfectly the stones fit together and they were polished smooth and the corners jointed.  They didn't use any motor or cement.  This one temple was found under a monastery after an earthquake unearthed part of it untouched.  The Spanish tore down anything they found and built Catholic churches on top of the Inca sites using the Inca's stones.

 This was a temple/fortress overlooking Cusco, the Inca capital.  The Incas had an empire that spread out from that one city and was the largest all the Americas.  It extending all up and down the Pacific coast and up to the Amazon jungle.

Behind me is one of the larger stones in the front wall, which would weigh tons.  They had no machinery or iron or even horses to help haul and lift the stones.

 They built tons of terraces in the hills for farming and to preserve the land from erosion.

 Part of a temple terraces in the Sacred Valley.  They built structures every 5 hours apart (by walking) along their roads.

 This is Machu Picchu again, which was far away from Cusco in the tops of some mountains and the Spanish never did find it so it wasn't destroyed by them, just from time as it was abandoned.

 They had quite elaborate buildings here.  It was probably a citadel for learning for the noble classes.

 Looking down at some of the ruins from above.  It's quite amazing to think they built this on top of a mountain.

 Climbing some of the stairs as we explored the ruins.

 They had grass thatched roofs which are mostly gone but this one was reconstructed so you could see what it was like.

 Lots of buildings and homes and rooms.

 It was fun to wander around in the ruins.

 Here's Jacquelyn coming up a trail with Nancy.  Nancy and Jeff were from Colorado and we got to be friends with them.  They were the only other two Americans in our tour group.

 They carved two faces into the mountains across from Machu Picchu.  They looked close to as big as the ones we have at Mt. Rushmore.

 You can see some of the fields and how green it was there, even though we were way up in the mountain tops.

We had a good time together seeing the sights at Machu Picchu.