Glatt Kosher Vacations

One of the New Seven Wonders of the World
PERU, CUZCO

Machu Picchu

Often referred to as "The Lost City of the Incas", Machu Picchu is probably the most familiar symbol of the Inca Empire. It was built around the year 1450, but abandoned a hundred years later, at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. Forgotten for centuries, the site was brought to worldwide attention in 1911 by Hiram Bingham, an American historian. Since then, Machu Picchu has become an important tourist attraction. It has recently come to light that the site may have been discovered and raided several years previously, in 1867 by a German businessman, Augusto Berns. It was declared a Peruvian Historical Sanctuary in 1981 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. It is also one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

Machu Picchu was built in the classical Inca style with polished dry-stone walls. Its primary buildings are the Intihuatana, the Temple of the Sun, and the Room of the Three Windows. These are located in what is known by archaeologists as the Sacred District of Machu Picchu. In September of 2007, Peru and Yale University reached an agreement regarding the return of artifacts which Hiram Bingham had removed from Machu Picchu in the early 20th century.

Ruins

Sacsayhuaman Fortress

An imposing example of Inca military architecture, Sacsayhuaman is located 2 km from the city of Cusco.

The fortress was hewn from vast granite blocks to protect the city from marauding tribes from the eastern jungle, the Antis region.

Sacsayhuaman ("satisfied hawk" in Quechua, the Inca language) is divided into three vast zig-zagging terraces and flanked by massive stone walls. Some walls up to 300 meters long.

As it lies close to Cusco, and due to the dimension of its stones -some of which stand 5 meters high and weigh over 300 tons, the site was used as a quarry to provide stone for colonial buildings in Cusco.

Tambomachay

Tambomachay is located 8 km. from Cusco, 1 km. from Puka Pukara and is located on the outskirts of a hill near the main road close to Antisuyo. The name comes from two Quechua words: Tampu, meaning collective housing and Mach‘ay, which means a resting place.

It is also known as Tambo de la Caverna and it takes up an area of 437 square meters and over 3,700 meters in height. As its name indicates, one can see caverns (machay) nearby, places where, according to indigenous tradition, magic was practiced.

The construction was completely made from sculpted stone and was formed by four walls or terraces on the hill. Made by irregular many-angled bases, it is very well assembled. It shows four great niches, vaulted niches in trapezoidal form of an average of 2 meters. In front of the building there was a circular watchtower that had must have been used for defense and communication purposes.

There is also "The Bath of the Ñusta" or "Inca Maiden’s Bath" which is made of two aqueducts that transport clean water all year long, and which flow into a small stone pond. This was a religious pond, where the Inca worshipped the water with the others in the Empire.

The bath looks very much like the one in Ollantaytambo, made of perfectly assembled stones with sculpted borders and sewage ducts. Even though now it is an open-air site, the basis seen to indicate that it was originally a sealed place. The water enters the pond through two artistically sculpted canals. The entrance is through four platforms of a twin-sided trapezoidal porch.

Quenko

This well-known Inca worship site, another one of the complexes that surround the imperial city, is a temple that dominates the whole area, located 4 km. from the city of Cusco, via the route to Sacsayhuaman on the way to the Antisuyo region.

When the spaniards arrived in the capital of the Tahuantisuyo, they began to categorize buildings and cities according to their European mentality, and K’enko, because of it’s semi-circular construction, was classified as an amphitheater. Actually, no one is truly sure of the purpose of this vast construction, which could be an altar, a court or an Inca’s tomb, maybe Pachacutec’s. It is presumed that it was one of the most important sanctuaries in the empire.

The original name of this sanctuary is not known. The Quechua word K’enko means labyrinth and was assigned later, while archaeologist Cesar Garcia Rossell claims Quencco means "snail". This worship site is located on what is today called Socorro hill and takes up an area of more than 3,500 square meters.

But the Spanish looters were unable to destroy the intiwatana, the zigzagging duct, the amphitheater and the chamber of the dead.

PukaPukara

Seven km. from the city of Cusco down the road that leads to Pisac, another Inca archaeological complex is to be found: Puka Pukara (Reddish fortress), which takes its name from the color of the earth in the area.

Puka Pukara was a Tambo or housing complex and food storeroom. It is thought that it was a residential quarter because it was strategically located and dominated the territory. It is possible that were communicated with Tambomachay, at a distance of 1 km.

It present building is made of stone, between small and medium in size, with interior plazas, bathrooms and aqueducts, and an old road that is easily recognizable. All the constructions show a typical Inca style.

At the foot of the hill lies Pukara, there is a small torrent on a narrow stream between a granite walls made in the old style.

Pisac

Písac is a Peruvian village in the Sacred Valley on the Urubamba River. The village is well-known for its market every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday, an event which attracts heavy tourist traffic from nearby Cusco.

The area is perhaps best known for its Incan ruins, known as Inca Písac, which lie in the top of a hill at the entrance to the valley. The ruins are separated along the ridge into four groups.

The hillside is lined with agricultural terraces constructed by the Inca and still in use today. With military, religious, and agricultural structures, the site served at least a triple purpose.

Urubamba

The Urubamba Valley is also known as “El Valle Sagrado de los Incas”, or the Sacred Valley of the Incas. It is a laid back valley near Cusco appreciated by the Incas due to its special geographical and climatic qualities perfectly suited for farming. Ancient ruins, gentle mountain slopes and scattered farming towns define the Valley. The Valley was one of the empire's main points for the extraction of natural wealth, and the best place for corn production in Peru.