Machu Picchu Mountain Paradise
Machu Picchu construction began around 1,400 CE but was abandoned during the Spanish conquests, incidentally keeping the location a secret until modern discovery in 1911. The entire ancient city, built in the mountains of the Cusco Region of Peru, which the Inca hold scared; A practice called Sacred Geography by Johan Reinhard. Around 140 structures are found throughout built using a technique the Inca mastered called ashlar, mortar-less brick building. Stone alignments were detailed in ways to help prevent structures from collapsing during an earthquake, which evidently helped the entire complex stand the test of time.
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| Machu Picchu (Nano Banana) |
Some of the stones were left with knobs that would later be removed after positioning, evidence of how they moved the much larger and heavier blocks weighing 20-50 tons, up hill, remains a mystery. Intricately carved ritual stones called Intihuatana have been described as a sort of astronomical clock, marking the obliquity of the ecliptic, while the northern hemisphere is inclined toward the sun and the southern hemisphere is not. The Intihuatana line up specifically so that no shadow is cast on the stone on March 21st and September 21st the two dates marking the obliquity.
