The Machu Picchu Guidebook: A Self-Guided Tour [Paperback]

Coloradans Ken and Ruth Wright have teamed with Peruvian archeologist Alfredo Valencia to place back in working order the sixteen fountains of Machu Picchu. You can see for yourself.

The Inca were master water handlers. They chose Machu Picchu as a ceremonial center because the mountains and the river spoke to them of life-giving power. The Urubamba River far below snakes triangular around the base of Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu Mountains. A saddle between these peaks cradles the temples, rock shrines, dwelling places and agricultural terraces that dance between the clouds in early morning and emerge to sunlight by noon.

Water at the center of it all. The paleohydrologic studies of the Wrights and Valencia reveal how the Inca predicated the design and construction of Machu Picchu upon the flow of a spring. From high on the side of Machu Picchu Mountain, a canal brings water across an agricultural terrace to the first fountain just above the Temple of the Sun. From there, 16 fountains splash, spout and sing down a staircase to the Temple of the Condor.

You can see for yourself. Inside of Ruth's and Alfredo's Guidebook is a foldout archeological map of Machu Picchu. Study it. See how the Inca trail leads into the upper and lower agricultural terraces. Notice how the Inca Canal cuts across the drainage moat to bisect the western and eastern urban sectors. Spot the Sacred Rock at the start of the Huayna Picchu trail, where Quechua families still hug the visible manifestation of Pachamama, the earth mother.

Now you are ready for your self-guided tour. Just inside the entrance gate, climb to the Guardhouse. Pause to see how the water supply canal passes right by food storehouses. Cross the Inca Trail coming in from Cusco and stand beside the Guardhouse. Below you stretches the whole of this incredible cradle of civilization-lovely green of the main plaza feeding llama and alpaca; Inca stones rising on either side to form the ceremonial and residential edifices; and the crop-growing terraces on the flanks of the cradle falling away to the Urubamba River.

Step-by-step, Ruth and Alfredo talk you by the printed page through these wonders. Plan on several days. You will have the joy of misty morning and sun-streaked afternoons. The day-traintrippers will be gone. Wind through the Rock Quarry. Pause in the quiet of the Unfinished Temple. You can take the time to side hike to the Sun Gate, Machu Picchu Mountain, the Inca Drawbridge and Huayna Picchu Mountain. Talk with other visitors. The world is here for good reason.

Ruth and Alfredo immensely aid the visitor's Machu Picchu experience. They bring new information to old understandings:

"There are many different ways to experience Machu Picchu. We hope this guidebook will give you the tools to do it in your own way. In the last several decades, much has been learned about the Inca in general and Machu Picchu in particular. Since the Inca had no written language, scientists have had to 'read' their artifacts, their stones, their temples and their mummies to establish their place in history. Recent information and new analyses of earlier findings are shedding additional light on these truly remarkable people and their culture."

The Guidebook starts with an introduction to the history and topography of Machu Picchu. Chapters follow dedicated to the Guardhouse and The Terrace of the Ceremonial Rock; the Western Urban Sector; the Eastern Urban Sector; Various Sites on the Way Out; and Side Trips. Marvelous detail attends every page. The accompanying photographs are many and well shot. They draw your attention to the features described in the text.

Pay particular attention to the numerous huacas. These are the Inca sacred places, typically consisting of naturally situated or human placed rocks cut to the shape of surrounding peaks. These people loved their mountains.

Don't be afraid to make some wrong turns as you orient yourself. The structure of the Guidebook divides Machu Picchu into hemispheres. You start by going down from the Guardhouse to the Main Gate to the Temple of the Sun; then you turn laterally to the residence of the Inca and back through the Western Urban Sector up to the Rock Quarry, the Sacred Plaza and the Intiwantana. Then you proceed clockwise past the Sacred Rock and Unfinished Temple into the Eastern Urban Sector, finishing at the Temple of the Condor.

Making the walk in this way takes you away from the staircase of the 16 fountains early on. You encounter the staircase and the fountains again when you reach the Temple of the Condor much later. Sometime during your multi-day visit to Machu Picchu, you will want to follow the staircase in one continuous movement down from the Main Gate to see, feel and hear the fountains flow sinuously.

I especially like the fountains.

SIXTEEN FOUNTAINS

Down a granite staircase sixteen
Fountains carry the spring
Falling from the Sungate, high on
Machu Picchu mountain

You can hear the mountain-singing
Hands of master craftsmen
Scoring stone with hammer rock and
Praying Pachamama

To the temple of the arcing
Sun, jetting water out
When water runs for rock and men
And all is feminine.