Sucarol

|Description of |
|Machu Picchu |
| |
| |The sanctuary of Machu Picchu is divided into two large sectors - one the agricultural | |[pic] |
| |sector and the other the urban or the citadel - of which the first surrounds the second.| |[pic] |
| |We could consider thepeak Wayna Picchu as a third sector. | | |
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| |The principal road to approach Machu Picchu, which comes from Cuzco through the south | ||
| |(Qosqoñan), crosses the crest of the mountain and goes to the entrance to the sanctuary | | |
| |after passing through areas with isolated constructions - such as what is now called the| | |
| |watchtower - posts for lookouts or guards, qolqa or granaries and abundantagricultural | | |
| |terraces. There were also other roads, such as that which made the river accessible from| | |
| |the sanctuary on the northeast. At present a road has been constructed for tourist | | |
| |visits, a road which did not existbefore and now runs parallel to the Qosqoñan. | | |
| |The sanctuary properly speaking is a citadel made up of palaces and temples, dwellings and storehouses, but above all for buildings which clearly fulfill ceremonial religious functions, the more luxurious and |
| |spectacular components of which are the mausoleumscarved in the rock. |
| | || |The buildings as well as the plazas and the platforms that constitute the urban sector are connected among themselves by a system of narrow lanes or paths, mostly in the form of flights of steps, which cross the |
| |terraces which follow a flat longitudinal axis. The main platform of the urban sector is an extensive plaza - the main plaza - which in turndivides the buildings into hanan ("above" or "upper") and urin ("below" |
| |or "lower"). The urban sector was surrounded by impediments to gaining access to the sanctuary such as a defense wall and the deep and wide ditch, or dry moat, which surrounded the whole complex, not as part of a |
| |military fortification rather as a form of restricted ceremonialisolation. |
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||[pic] | | | |
|Historical |
|context |
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| |Machu Picchu is a settlement built by the Incas in the fifteenth century. Inca, or Inka,|...