The Adventures of Kerri & Matt

The main fountains it Machu Picchu run alongside the main stairway.

The water comes from springs about a mile away via aquaducts.

The channels were less than 4 inches thick, smaller than most similar Incan sites.

They have restored the water to most of the channels, but they run at only 40% of their original capacity.

Some of the channels don’t seem to go anywhere anymore, so they have not been restored.

The fountains were probably used to fill water pots for cooking and drinking. They were also obviously decorative.

This is a rock that our guide said was sacred because they had carved it to represent the surrounding mountains. But archaeologists can find no evidence that it has been carved and think this is its natural shape. It would also have eroded significantly since Incan times.

This is the Inti Watania stone, or “hitching post of the sun”, which was used to determine the days of the solstices by measuring the shadows. It was originally polished to have a shiny surface.

This is another sacred rock. It was originally carved into a special shape and polished very finely. Most people think it originally matched the shape of a mountain range, but it has been eroded badly over the past 400 years. Some archaeologists even think it was originally the outline of a guinea pig or puma.

The guides say it matches this mountain. I think this is mostly because this mountain is directly behind the stone, making it harder to compare the shape while you are there.

There were lots of other buildings at Machu Picchu. They were used for living in, workshops and storage.

Most of them used to have straw roofs.

These little holes on the side held wooden beams.

They stretched across to provide support.

And then the roof was tied onto the stone pegs.

This is a reconstruction.

Here it is from the inside.

There were also some with hipped roofs.

The site would have looked very different if all of these buildings had roofs.

This temple was probably the most important one to the Incas because of it’s location and careful masonry work. But it’s pretty boring looking now, so it didn’t even get an interesting name. The wall is broken due to rain eroding away its foundation.

In front of the temple is this stone, which points due South. Some archaeologists think it represents the Southern Cross, which rises over the mountain where it points one day of the year.