Mystical Macchu Picchu

One of the most spectacular and intriguing places I have been lucky enough to visit is Peru, the highlight of course being a visit to Machu Picchu.

The trip started  in Lima, a vibrant bustling city, before flying up to Cusco. This ancient  and fascinating city  was the capital of the Inca Empire.  It is also one of Peru`s  most visited cities. It is situated high up in the Andes and the affects of the altitude hit you the minute the plane lands. At 3,400 m above sea level, altitude sickness can be quite nasty and we were advised to rest and drink a local herbal tea remedy. By the next morning we were all fine and ready to start our tour.

Our tour guide was a direct, if distant, descendant from the Inca`s, wealth of knowledge and full of stories and facts that made the trip memorable.

The  journey up to Macchu Pichhu starts in another Inca city – Ollantaytambo, where you board the train up to Aguas Calientes before starting the journey up to Machu Picchu. the journey is quite scary, as the bus winds up and up into the mountains, but it is well worth it, this is a truly spectacular place to be.

Machu Picchu is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It stands 2,430 m above sea-level, in the middle of a tropical mountain forest, in an extraordinarily beautiful setting. It was probably the most amazing urban creation of the Inca Empire at its height; its giant walls, terraces and ramps seem as if they have been cut naturally into the  rock.

It is a long and tiring journey as you climb up and up to view the city. It is also a very mystical place with a real air of mystery about it. The Inca`s had no written language, so they left no record of why they built the site or how they used it before it was abandoned in the early 16th century. The city was built some 500 years ago when the Inca`s had no iron, no steel, and no wheels.

One of the most mystifying things for me, is the similarity to the architecture of ancient Egypt. The shapes and construction of the ruins is identical to the temples of the Pharaohs’  near to the Pyramids in Cairo, but Egypt`s ruins date back to around 2000 BC – Machu Picchu was not built until around 1500 AD!

On a lighter note, having made it to the top, here is the Llama that tried to push me off!!

This is the trip of a lifetime and if you think it is for you have a look at The Wonder Years section of our website for an amazing way to visit this mystical place.