machu picchu

on new years eve we went to machu picchu.  we took a bus to a train to another bus up a very scary hill then hiked some and finally we saw it - the incan masterpiece.  it is amazing how they built this whole city so high up in the mountains.

i am sure many of you know the history of machu picchu so i will not go into great detail. machu picchu (lost city of the incans) was built around 1450 by the incans under the direction of pachacutec.  it was abandoned during the spanish conquest of the area.  it was discovered in 1911 by hiram bingham.




couple of interesting facts:
- the mountain in the background of most pictures is huayna picchu and only 400 visitors can go up the mountain a day

- only 70% of machu picchu has been discovered, the remaining 30% is still buried under vegetation
- the roundish building is the temple of the sun and faces the sun gate

- machu picchu is actually the name of the mountain on the other side of the structure, meaning old mountain and is not typically in photos.  since they did not know the name of the city - they called it machu picchu
-quechua is the native language in this part of peru

below i have included some pics of machu picchu without people but also some pics i am in.  i have TONS of pics from machu picchu, so if you want to see more, just let me know.