Machu Picchu is an incredibly well-preserved Incan city of ancient times situated high in the mountains of Peru above the Sacred Valley. It was not raided by Spanish conquistadors during the 16th century and remained hidden until American explorer Hiram Bingham discovered it at the beginning of the 20th century. While generally assumed to be an Inca royal retreat, the site is currently determined to date to before the building of the Inca empire. The city, built of minutely cut granite megalithic stones, is testimony to advanced building, with signs pointing to an exceedingly high level of craftsmanship in the construction of this city. The documentary film delves into the interesting history and construction of Machu Picchu, including how farmers in the area held the site prior to it being world famous. Through critically examining the Machu Picchu archaeology narratives, the film eliminates the myth that the Inca civilization was the only one to construct the site and speculates its megalithic origin to be much earlier in time.
Highlights
Authoritative Architecture: The megalithic architecture of Machu Picchu shows the advanced skill of architecture, a testament to the engineers' skills of its constructors.
Natural Conservation: The city was conservatively conserved by being concealed beneath jungle growth, thus protecting it from the destruction caused due to Spanish conquistadors.
Some Discoveries: Hiram Bingham is generally credited with "discovering" Machu Picchu in 1911, although local farmers and explorers knew of it years before.
A Troubled Past: The culture and civilization that constructed Machu Picchu may be thousands of years prior to the Inca, the reverse of standard archaeological evidence.
A Budget Adventure: Though still in a remote location at 7,970 feet above sea level, Machu Picchu is today a very popular vacation destination with numerous forms of transport.
Architectural Styles: There are three different architectural styles in the building: still further proof of a convergence of cultural influences that has hidden its early origins.
Urban Legend: The standard tale is to mythologize the Inca as the sole builders, but a closer look yields a more complex relationship between ancient cultures.
Lack of Adequate Records: Lack of written records prior to the Columbian era makes cultural histories conjectural and distorts our impression of South American civilizations in the past.
Megalithic Methods: The accuracy of Machu Picchu's stone architecture invites questions about the Inca's technology, which evokes speculation about lost civilization knowledge that could have informed their structures.
Ceramic Limitations of Evidence: The latest datations of the construction of Machu Picchu are based largely on pottery analysis, which is not an actual reflection of the construction methods or the socio-political situation of the time.
Cultural Continuity: The standard Inca architecture might have been less an issue of constructing them at all and rather one of appropriating and reusing the existing pre-Columbian megalithic structures, and such evidence would be presented to theories of cultural continuity and adaptation.
Historical Amnesia: Spanish desecration of pre-Columbian texts and art left a giant vacuum in history that diminishes what is known of the ancient culture of the region.
Myths vs. Reality: Tradition has it that highly advanced, megalithic societies had existed before the Inca, hence refuting the sole architectural heritage theory.
New Needs for Research: New models of archaeology have to be reassessed under the new paradigm of previous human history dependent on changing scientific evidence in geology and genetics in order to develop an enlightened approach to investigating our past.
Lastly, Machu Picchu calls upon us to an exploration of even deeper human history and the civilization that built out the Andes centuries before there was an Inca Empire. The lasting magnificence of this site attracts not only several tourists but calls also for still more investigation of the deta
ils behind its history.
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