MACHU PICCHUby Sophia Escobar Chang

Machu Picchu Is the ancient city of the Incas. A lost city. An abandoned city. A hidden city. One of the New Seven Wonders of the World.Machu Picchu was built around 1450. Before the Spanish conquerors arrived, the Inca empire controlled a 3,000 mile of land that stretched east from the Pacific Ocean across the Andes Mountains to the jungle.

Near Cuzco, the capital of this great kingdom, was an extraordinary city built almost 8,000 feet above sea level on a flat ridge between two high peaks of the Andes. Surrounded by agricultural terraces, the city was small, only about 5 square miles. But it had more than 150 buildings from palaces and temples to baths, storage rooms, and homes for a population of about 800.

The Incas had no writing system. They left behind no histories, no records, no diaries.

Even though they had no written language, the Incas developed one of the most sophisticated societies in the pre-industrial world. They had an effective system for taxation, for construction, for warfare, for providing goods and services to their people.

By 1572, the Spanish had completely conquered the Incan empire and Machu Picchu was abandoned.

Had the Spanish attacked the city?

No. Machu Picchu was invisible from the foot of the mountains. There is no evidence the conquistadors even realized it existed.Why was the city abandoned?One theory is that a small pox epidemic killed most of the residents and sent the rest fleeing for their lives. Whatever the reason, by 1572 Machu Picchu was a ghost town, left to return to nature.

Stone StructureThe structures at Machu Picchu have withstood earthquakes for almost 600 years. The reason may lie in the details of their design. Doors and windows are shaped like trapezoids. Most corners are rounded, not squared off. And the corners of interior rooms actually lean into the room. These features help the structure withstand anything the Earth can hand out. Someone in the group speculates about how the structures were built. After all, the building blocks weigh up to 50 tons, and in the mountainous terrain the Incas did not make use of the wheel. The answer: Organization. People. Muscle power.

by Sophia Escobar Chang