History

The city was built around 1450, according to a theory of Pachacuti, a ruler of the Incas, who ruled from 1438 to 1471. He laid the foundations for the extension of the mighty Inca empire and introduced the cult of the sun god Inti. As the official date for the rediscovery of the year is often given 1911th In fact, there were previously many different "explorer", and the existence of the city has long been known to certain groups of people. Dr. John Rowe discovered a Spanish document of 1568, which the Inca Yupanki called former land owners Picho (Picchu). The same document states that products grown here were used as offerings.

Two documents discovered by the German engineer Christian Bues, who had settled in the Urubamba Valley to survey work, show that 1614 in the field of Salkantay (area of Machu Picchu), a border conflict broke out between different landowners. The area belonged to this time the root of the Cañaris, led by the cacique Don Francisco Poma Gualpa. The Cañaris were descendants of an Ecuadorian tribe (see Cañaris), which could hold up to 1849 in the area and then died out. It is believed that the Cañaris the guardians of Machu Picchu were. 1657 the Augustinian order temporarily leased the land to Machu Picchu, without taking note of the ruins themselves.

The only currently known document about the legendary Inca city is a deed from 1782, was discovered by the historian Professor Jose Uriel Garcia. On Sheet 20 of the handwritten log shows that Machu Picchu and the surrounding land was developed by the commander Marcos Antonio de la Camara y Escuerdo bought for 450 pesos. This has been authenticated by the notary notarized Ambrose de Lira. From the document shows that the name of the city of Machu Picchu was. It was not until Hiram Bingham (see below) created - wittingly or unwittingly - the mystery surrounding the true name of the city.

The Italian Antonio Raimondi, published 1865, a map, registered at the Machu Picchu and was especially marked. 1867 Machu Picchu was discovered by German Augusto Berns, who owned his company for this area gold mining rights.

In 1875 the Frenchman Nicolas came to Vienna to the Inca ruins of Ollantaytambo before, where he received from indigenous evidence that there should be more ruins at "Matcho Picchu. Through the rough and almost impassable Urubamba Valley struggled to Vienna in the near present-day Machu Picchu before, but failed shortly before the finish in a landslide. In 1874, was developed by the surveyor Herman Gohring drawn a map, marked on the Machu Picchu on the exact location is.

Since 1894, the name of Machu Picchu, everyone knows at least for the population in the Urubamba valley. Don Luis Bejar Ugarte could be in the same year by Augustin Lizarraga lead to Machu Picchu, which was 17 years later, under Hiram Bingham (see below) team. Lizzaraga Ugarte, and thereby discovered a tunnel breakthrough from the Inca period, which crosses the Rio Urubamba. This tunnel was rediscovered by the engineer Osvaldo Patiño Paez in 1930.

When in 1895 a mule track along the Urubamba River was blown up, was in Cusco, Machu Picchu in the Kitchen. On 14 July 1901 returned Lizzaraga back together with his friends, Don Enrique Palma of San Miguel and Gavino Sanchez from the Hacienda Collpani, to the Inca city. You scratched your name on the wall of the royal palace. At this time the Indigena Anacleto Alvarez lived in the area of Machu Picchu. He rented the terraces.

A few weeks before Bingham's expedition in 1911, the American Alberto Giesecke, collided with Don Braulio Polo y la Borda, who knew about indigenous people of the city, to the foot of Machu Picchu before. However, they had to turn back because of bad weather. Giesecke's knowledge and experiences were then the basis for Bingham's expedition.

On 24 July 1911 the ruins were rediscovered by an expedition from Yale University under the direction of Hiram Bingham's by accident. The settlement was overgrown with dense vegetation. Bingham was on the lookout for the mysterious Inca city of Vilcabamba, the Incas fled to the after Pizarro occupied Cuzco in 1536. Bingham thought he had found Vilcabamba to Machu Picchu. Today it is known that Vilcabamba 35 kilometers further away in the jungle.

In the years 1912 to 1913 Bingham began to expose the city. In 1915 he published a book about his exploration of Machu Picchu. Became famous Machu Picchu, as the National Geographic Society devoted their entire April 1913 issue of this city. It is also alleged that Bingham had discovered the city had two years before, and gave their time to create the gold in the United States.