Declared both a natural and a cultural World
Heritage Site by unesco, the Machu Picchu
Historical Sanctuary is truly a rare and
wonderful place. Where else in the world can
you walk for days through cloud forests and
over razor-sharp passes, in country that’s been
inhabited for thousands of years by civilizations
only discovered by Europeans less than five
hundred years ago? Where else could you have
such a breathtaking goal to your trek: the
magical, lost city of Machu Picchu which rises
from a high spur of mountain, like a stage set
in a green amphitheatre of forest-clad hills?
The Inca heritage
For thousands of years the people of South
America developed separately from the rest of
the world. Their culture culminated in the
Incas, a people whose empire was centred on
Peru and which stretched further than that of
the Romans, yet who governed without having
discovered iron, the wheel or writing. Like the
Romans, the Incas left behind them monu-
mental stone constructions, built for the most
part without mortar yet strong enough to with-
stand centuries of earthquakes that have
toppled more modern edifices. Also like the
Romans, they left behind them one of the most extensive road networks in the ancient world, for the most part paved and drained, which linked every part of their realm.
Many of these roads have been rediscovered and some of
them have been cleared. The Inca Trail is one such road,
part of a network that once penetrated the thick rainforest that grows either side of the river Urubamba. Walkers who follow it today pass over high-altitude wind-blown grassland and down to steamy encroaching jungle. At the end of the road is Machu Picchu. On these grasslands and in this jungle is an abundance of plant, bird and animal life, and beside this ancient Inca road are recently rediscovered castles and remote fieldstone inns.
The Incas also left their capital, Cusco, which for the most part has been spared the complete destruction suffered by Mexico, capital of that other great ancient American people, the Aztecs. It’s still possible to wander along Cusco’s Inca alleyways which run between walls of perfectly hewn stone and visit the remains of the magnificent Sun Temple, once the religious heart of an empire. And the ‘new’ buildings such as the Cathedral and the Compañía, built in the 16th century by the Spanish colonizers, are beautiful in their own right.
Visiting Cusco and Machu Picchu
In the days of the Incas, Machu Picchu was a long hard walk from Cusco. Chasquis, Inca messengers, ran the roads of the Inca Trail and herders drove llama trains laden with maize and potatoes over the high passes. Today Machu Picchu is only four hours from Cusco by train, along a railway that’s been pushed through the jungle along the banks of the Urubamba river.
However, you can still walk. The high tableland around Cusco leads down to the fringes of the Amazon rainforest, and the area is criss-crossed with roads and tracks, ancient and modern, passing through unrivalled natural and ancient beauty. As you walk you’ll pass dazzling high glaciers and remote corries, along trails lined with original Inca canals and dotted with remote unvisited ruins where countless orchids grow in the clear Andean air.
About this book
The book is designed to take you from your armchair to these cities of the Incas, Cusco and Machu Picchu, and to guide you along the Incas’ trails, stretches of some of the best hiking in the world. The book includes information on getting to Peru, a guide to Peru’s capital Lima, background material on modern Peru; there’s a chapter devoted to the Incas and their predecessors, and chapters on Cusco and Machu Picchu. Detailed trekking maps are included, as are site plans and descriptions of what’s known about the abandoned ruins you’ll pass on your way.
For this edition the trekking section of this book has been expanded to include full details of two new treks: the Santa Teresa trek, which avoids the regulations and bureaucracy associated with the Inca Trail but which arrives at Machu Picchu all the same, after a glorious hike through diverse landscapes; and the splendid trek to the Inca ruins at Choquequirao, a remote site that resembles Machu Picchu, perched on a ridge above the sheer Apurímac valley. Also covered is the wonderful walk to the last refuge of the Incas at Vilcabamba, the ruins of which now lie abandoned and overgrown in a heavily forested valley. The hike traverses some stunning scenery, from lofty mountain passes, via pampa, puna, pasture, dwarf forest and cloud forest to thick lowland rainforest, the ‘eyebrows of the jungle’, that smothers and engulfs the lost, ancient stones of Vilcabamba.
Responsible travel
Sadly, as with many tourist sites, the paradox of tourism means that the trails, ruins and cities of the Sanctuary are at risk, threatened by their own beauty. It’s this beauty that draws the tourists who bring much needed money but at certain times of the year the main trails have become overcrowded and the fragile environment and old ruins damaged by thoughtless visitors who fail to behave with sensitivity. Such damage is not inevitable and this book contains a section suggesting how on your visit you can help preserve this beautiful environment.
Peru is full of wonders. Its beauty is breathtaking, and its culture fascinating. If you are sensitive to the place, it can have a greater impact on you than you have on it. So, in the words of Rudyard Kipling:
‘Something hidden. Go and Find it. Go and look behind the Ranges
Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go!’
(From The Explorer, which inspired the man who rediscovered Machu Picchu, Hiram Bingham).
|
