Machu Picchu

The Ruins on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

Brief Notes on the Main Archaeological Sites, with Photographs

Part 4 : The Lost City of the Incas


 
Machu Picchu seen from the Sun Gate, Intipunku. This is the first view hikers get of their destination.
 
View from Intipunku, the Sun Gate. This is the first sight of Machu Picchu that hikers following the Inca Tail get.

 

"Photographs are as Ashes to a Live Body"

Into the Fire new! by Linda Davies

 
"Helen had always feared that it would be an anticlimax, that something dreamed of for a lifetime would inevitably be smaller than the dream. She had lived so much of her life in the imagination that it was for her more powerful than reality. But what towered before her was greater than anything she might have conjured. Photographs were as ashes to a live body. Nothing captured Machu Picchu, a kingdom ruined but alive."

 

"The power was not just in the configurations of stones, but in the awesome setting. A thousand feet below, the Urubamba river churned through the gorge that cut around the base of the mountain. Surrounding them a circle of snow-covered peaks and green ranges towered into a dazzling sky. The Citadel at the centre."

 

The quotations above, describing the goal and fitting climax of the Inca Trail hike are from Into the Fire, the thriller by Linda Davies, who lived in Peru for three years. She used her experiences, and what she learnt there, in the plot of the novel. She travelled extensively in the country and hiked the Inca Trail on various occasions. Into the Fire is now available world-wide in a new paperback edition published by Twenty First Century Publishers new! and may also be downloaded as an ebook from Diesel eBooks.

 

Of course, Machu Picchu is an amazing spectacle, even if you arrive by train - the easy way!

The classic view of Machu Picchu with the mountain of Huayna Picchu in the background.
 
The Classic view showing the ruined city perched on a hill with the mountain Huayna Picchu in the background.

 

Machu Picchu seen from the summit of Huayna Picchu, high above.
 
A bird's eye view of Machu Picchu from the summit of Huayna Picchu.

 


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Maintained by Roy Davies.
Last updated 6 September 2008.