I’m not big on ratings. I feel no need to choose which is best among New York, Paris, London and Rome. What’s the point? At a certain level of fabulousness such comparisons are demeaning. Anyway, those kinds of preferences are personal, and specific to time and place. When I am in Vienna, it’s the center of the universe – and perish the thought of anyone even suggesting any competitors. Then again, when in Rome…
But when someone mentions Machu Picchu, I can barely restrain myself from blurting out that Machu Picchu is probably the most magical place I have ever been. My obsession with Machu Picchu was ignited the moment I laid eyes on that iconic image, looking down upon the ruins of buildings on a mountaintop, with a dark, mysterious peak looming over it. That photo itself was enough to cement it into my mind as a place I had to go.
And there was that enchanting name: Machu Picchu. What magical-sounding words! And to clinch it, the backstory of an abandoned ancient city high on a mountaintop that was discovered for the world in 1911 by a Yale University history lecturer named Hiram Bingham, who was actually looking for two other lost cities of the Incan civilization. And very little is known for certain about its origins. That was it. I was hooked.
The Iconic View
Almost all the pictures of Machu Picchu are variations of a single view, that astonishing view that captured me, and millions of others. The image is so riveting that no one presenting Machu Picchu can resist using it. The peak shown in the photos is actually Huayna Picchu, which means “young mountain.” The photos are taken from above, at a point on Machu Picchu (“old mountain”), a broad ridge of a mountain. The city was built on a lower extension of the larger mountain.
As gripping as that image is, it only shows a small part of the city. What impressed me most when I went there was the sheer magnitude of the site. The vast, labyrinthian sprawl spreads over five miles, with more than 150 buildings. It has a huge, expertly crafted system of terraces along its steep mountainsides, with more than 3,000 stone steps connecting them.
But, as amazing as the city is, it is completely upstaged by the natural beauty of the place. It is one of the most stunning places I have ever seen. The mountain on which you stand is surrounded by innumerable other peaks of the Andes range, in rows cascading off into the distance, to where snow-capped peaks…
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