sacred valley | t ad studio

The famous shot of Machu Picchu, view of the main square from the city gate. Huayna Picchu is hidden behind the cloud — The iconic shot of Machu Picchu, view of the main square from the city gate. Huayna Picchu is hidden behind the cloud

Pretty much everyone who visits Peru goes to Machu Picchu at some point. For many people it is the main reason for visiting the country. It is without doubt one of the most recognisable places in the world, and one of the most photographed. It is considered to be one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, as it is one of the most significant pieces of human patrimony.

Agricultural terraces, you can more clearly how the terraces were built, amazingly, the Inca managed to carve out their stepped terrace farms even on these near vertical slopes

We too were making our way there, but we had taken the scenic route. We crossed the Altiplano by train and visited several other Inca sites; stopped at Cusco, Ollantaytambo and Pisac among others, and each had been breath-taking and deserving of some of Machu Picchu’s fame. Like everyone else however, we were looking forward to seeing the big one. There is a reason everybody wants to go to Machu Picchu.

The nearest settlement is Aguas Calientes, and this is where we stayed overnight. After breakfast, we walked over to the tourist information centre where we met with our guide and caught the bus. Guides are mandatory when visiting Machu Picchu, a requirement set by the government. As well as providing visitors with some context, they also help ensure that the huge numbers of tourists are managed (thus protecting the site), and also provides employment for Peruvians. We had got a sense of how huge those numbers were while in Aguas Calientes, but it was rammed home as we waited for the bus. The queue was very, very long.

On a clear day you can see a beautiful view of the valley below, this is an abandoned quarry

Machu Picchu is the historic site which gets by far the most attention in Peru. However, for the Inca who built it, this was far from their most important settlement. In fact, it was a relative backwater. The remote location, on the top of a mountain hidden up an inaccessible valley, is what makes it so spectacular, but it also made it a poor place to build a thriving city. Instead (clearly being a man who appreciated natural beauty), the Inca Emperor Pachacuti decided to build a personal estate to give himself a place to retreat from the pressures of ruling. At its height, Machu Picchu had a population of around 750 people, but this probably would have increased when Pachacuti visited.

The Palace of the Princess or Ñusta Palace

The weather on the morning we visited was overcast, thus making it the perfect temperature to go climbing up and down steep hills. As we climbed up to the site however, the clouds started moving in and when we reached the top, the rain started. As we wandered around the views were obscured by mist and being a photographer, I knew I was being denied some great shots. Despite this, we weren’t too disappointed because as the mist swirled around the jagged ruined walls, it added to the ethereal atmosphere of the place.

The semi-circular structure is the Temple of the Sun, Royal Residence behind the thatched roof. You can see the eastern urban sector in the background

Our guide led us along the increasingly muddy paths which loop around the ruins. She showed us the settlement’s main square, the circular tower (most likely used as an observatory), and the sacred solar clock. We were shown the palace where the emperor would have stayed, the temple of the three windows and then the cemeteries. The upper part of the city is home to the palace and the sacred temples. Just below are the houses that the bulk of the population would have lived in as well as the grain warehouses. Amazingly, the Inca managed to carve out their stepped terrace farms even on these near vertical slopes. As you look down at the valley below, you can still see the stone embankments they built to give themselves scraps of flat land to grow crops on.

Despite the weather and the crowd, the majesty of Machu Picchu is undeniable, and it was clear that its UNESCO world heritage site status is more than justified. It is a magical, mysterious place that feels like something from a fantasy story. The American explorer, Hiram Bingham, must have found it even more so when he rediscovered it in 1911. He had the place all to himself (with the exception of his indigenous guide, of course). In fact he would have been one of just a handful of visitors since the site was abandoned by the Inca during the Spanish conquest hundreds of years before.

Bingham was a real life Indiana Jones, whose adventures are as fantastical as Machu Picchu itself. Coming from a family of missionaries in Hawaii, he set of for Chile in 1908 for a conference and instead of returning home, decided to wander through the jungles of Peru looking for lost Inca cities. Machu Picchu was not the first that he discovered, he was also the first to document the existence of Vilcabamba, also known as the Lost City of Inca. It was the city where the last Inca emperors hid and mounted a guerrilla campaign against the Spanish. He had heard rumours of another forgotten city, high up in the mountains, and eventually persuaded a villager named Melchor Arteaga from the valley below to take him there. Although others probably visited Machu Picchu before him, he was the first to document it and bring it to the world’s attention.

Mysterious yet beautiful view looking down to the valley

Hiram Bingham took a photo of the site from a viewpoint looking down over it. This is the same famous shot which hundreds of people now take every day. It shows the ruins, the sheer cliff faces on either side, and the equally sheer peak towering behind. This is Huayna Picchu, and if you really want the full experience, it can be climbed as well. To do so, however, you need to book well in advance – its narrow paths only allow a certain number of people at a time, and so access is controlled by the Peruvian Government. If you want to climb it, you have to book at least three months ahead.

Steep terraces, looking down from Intihuatana

Another measure imposed to limit the impact of the huge number of visitors Machu Picchu generates, is to limit the time you can spend there to a maximum of four hours. If you really wanted to, you could spend a whole day up there taking it all in, but four hours is long enough to see everything, so we didn’t feel deprived. At around midday we headed back down to Aguas Calientes and enjoyed some lunch. Then we wandered around the souvenir markets while we waited for the late afternoon train back to Ollantaytambo. There, we met our driver and headed back to Cusco. While the weather had been against us, that couldn’t take away our delight at having visited such an awe inspiring place.

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Looking up to the Temple of Three Windows

Picturesque Huayna Picchu and the Urubamba Valley and river

This is the winding road we took from Auas Calientes going up to Machu Picchu

The main urban area consists of houses and factories

The Temple of Condor is a fine example of Inca stonemasonry, where they skillfully shaped it into the outspread wings of a condor in flight

Aguas Calientes, which means hot waters in Spanish, is often referred to as Machu Picchu Town

Aguas Calientes is a town in the Urubamba River Valley

The Sacred Valley was one of Inca's most important places — The Sacred Valley was one of Inca’s most important places

Peru’s southern highland provinces are so packed with the ruins of Inca civilisation that sometimes it feels you can’t go anywhere without stumbling across one. It is only by visiting them and seeing for yourself the sheer number of constructions and the skill that their builders possessed, that you can appreciate the advancement of the Inca civilisation. At its height, it covered as many territories as the Roman Empire, and despite their eventual defeat to the Spanish, you can’t help but feel that in terms of power and sophistication, they were close rivals to the Europeans of the time.

It is only by visiting and seeing for yourself the sheer number of constructions and the skill that their builders possessed, that you can appreciate the advancement of the Inca civilisation. This is Ollantaytambo Ruins

We had just taken in Cusco, their empire’s capital, and were planning to make our way to Machu Picchu. It was tempting to head straight there, but between these two sites is a place nobody should miss. The Sacred Valley of Urubamba was one of the Inca’s most important places and, as such, it has a particularly high number of impressive ruins. We decided to take a day taking in the sites of the valley.

Pisac is located at a strategic position at the head of the Sacred Valley

This valley was important to the Incas, not just because of its proximity to their capital, but also due to the relatively lower altitude. In a place as high up as this part of Peru, this is a rarity. Because of this, the valley could be farmed more intensively than elsewhere, and corn, an uncommon and important status food for the Inca elites, could thrive. Its fertility was aided by the Urubamba River which flows along the valley floor. As the valley grew in importance, several towns sprung up and the valley became one of the favoured retreats for the elites and the emperor himself. The rich and powerful started to build large estates for themselves, so that they could escape from the city to relax from time-to-time.

View of Pisac town from the archaeological park

Our first stop was Pisac, located at a strategic position at the head of the Sacred Valley. The small town of Pisac is still inhabited by the Quechua speaking descendants of the Inca. During the height of their ancestor’s empire however, it was a thriving town, so large that its remains are spread out across four separate complexes.

Kinchuraqay, perched precariously on the side of the hill, were grain stores where precious corn was kept

Pisac’s main purpose was to guard the southern end of the valley, protecting both its precious agricultural land, and the heartland around Cusco from invaders. It is theorised that the main threat were the Asháninka people who lived down in the jungle on the eastern foothills of the Andes. These people resisted Inca conquest fiercely and may have launched raids up into the mountains.

The Inca carved out dramatic terraces from the hillside to be used for agriculture, you can see Intihuatana sun temple at a distance

Pisac’s main attractions can be found up in the hills overlooking the village from the north. The first site we visited was Intihuatana – the sun temple. Inti was the favourite god of the Inca and he was associated with the sun. Here the name refers to the temple as a whole, but there are many Intihuatanas in Peru, and usually they take the form of a sacred stone which, when combined with the light of the sun, functioned as a type of clock or calendar. This one aligns with the sun during the June solstice, and within the temple there, is also an altar and a sacred spring. The temple is another fine example of the famous Inca stonework on display. Its location high up on the ridge gives it commanding views of the valley below.

Agriculture terraces and Intihuatana - the sun temple. Pisac is one of Peru's biggest archeological site — Agriculture terraces and Intihuatana – the sun temple. Pisac is one of Peru’s biggest archeological site

A little further down the slope is Q’allaquasa. This was the main Inca settlement where the majority of the ruins are of the houses which were occupied by the settlement’s ordinary inhabitants. Despite not being grand constructions, they are still impressive thanks to their position on the crown of a hill. To maximise the land available for agriculture, the Inca carved out dramatic terraces from the hillside, reminiscent of those in Eastern Asia. These still exist today, and some of the most impressive surrounding Q’allaquasa.

Inca doorway, marking the entrance to the sun temple

The final site we saw at Pisac was Kinchiraqay. Perched precariously on the side of the hill, these red stone buildings were the grain stores where precious corn was kept. Stacked one on top of the other, their charm is completed by the sloping thatched roofs, and as with almost every site in the Sacred Valley, the sweeping views their position gives.

Pisac is an important argricultural hub due to its climate and fertile soil

We moved on towards the town of Urubamba for lunch. Urubamba is one of the larger towns in the valley with a population of less than 3,000. It is situated at a spot where the valley opens up and provides enough space for a town, as well as for agriculture. On our way there we were treated to more of the valley’s striking scenery. Following the river along the valley floor, we were treated to an endless procession of pastoral fields bounded by towering peaks.

View of Ollantaytamboo old town from the ruins

After lunch we continued up the valley until we reached the region’s other major set of ruins. Just as Pisac guards the southern entrance to the valley, Ollantaytambo, also known as Ollanta by the locals, was designed to stop potential attacks from the north. The site was occupied long before the Inca arrived, however it was Pachacuti, considered as the most successful Inca emperor, who really transformed it into a significant place. He decided to set it aside as his personal estate after he had brought it into the empire.

The well-preserved Ollantaytamboo was once a stronghold of Inca resistance to Spanish colonisation

Here he constructed temples, defences and agricultural terraces, prompting the development of a town to house the workers of his estate. That town was largely demolished by the Spanish, but the rest of Pachacuti’s work has been preserved, albeit in ruined form. It is not hard to picture how grand this place must have been, despite its abandoned state.

Ollantaytamboo looking across to Pinkuylluna mountain (right). If you look closer you will see the face of Wiracocha carved into the rocks. The Incas believed he was the creator of all. Next to it you can see the Pinkuylluna Incan storehouses, used to store agricultural crops to feed the town

The famous and impressive Inca stonework is on display everywhere, and some buildings are almost complete, apart from a lack of roofs. Structures like the wall of the six monoliths, which forms part of the temple complex, demonstrate the highly developed engineering skills that the Inca possessed. Built from stones weighing more than fifty tonnes each, it’s a mystery how they managed to drag them up to this inaccessible spot. Archaeologists believe that the temple was never actually finished, and it is thought that Ollantaytambo was in the midst of a renovation when the Spanish turned up and terminated the construction.

Another example of the famous and impressive Inca stonework on display at Ollantaytamboo

Clearly its defences turned out to be of no use against the Europeans, but that doesn’t mean that they were not formidable. Smaller fortifications dot the hills around the main site (as do grain storehouses and quarries from which the building stone was obtained), and the Inca even diverted a stretch of the river so that it ran across the valley floor rather than along it. This gave invaders another obstacle to navigate. Like at Pisac, the hills leading up to the ruins have been extensively modified to create stepped terraces, and while those at Pisac are bigger, these are unquestionably neater.

The Incas possessed highly developed engineering skills

We were dropped at the Ollantaytambo Station in the afternoon and boarded the train to Aguas Calientes. If it wasn’t for the fact that this is the closest settlement to Machu Picchu, this town would be of little importance, hidden away between the towering mountains. Much of the town has been given over to the tourism industry, and its streets are packed with visitors.

Ollantaytamboo is the beginning of the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

While the landscapes of the Sacred Valley are spectacular, Aguas Calientes is further up into the Andes, and, its setting is even more dramatic. The slopes are like walls, and the flat space beside the river where buildings can be constructed is limited. The result is a small, but bustling town, wedged improbably into every available bit of space. It was a pleasant enough place to spend the night, but like everyone else there we were more excited about what tomorrow had in store for us – the ruins of Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu – a 15th century Inca citadel

Sacred Valley – the gateway to Machu Picchu