The Ghosts of Machu
Picchu
Director:
Year: 2010
Rating: 5.0
About 30 to 35 years ago I had airline tickets booked to go to Peru with
the intention of finding my way to Machu Picchu which had been a fascination
to me for years. A few days before I was to leave my boss at work told me
I would have to cancel my vacation because we had a presentation due. But
I am going to Machu Picchu I whined to him. Machu Picchu will still be there
for your next vacation. And it was but for reasons that escape me now I never
made it. And now at my advancing age and with a bum leg and being half a
world away I am pretty sure I never will. But the next best thing is just
seeing it in all its magnificence on film. And without the hordes of tourists
that I understand are going there now. There are only a few good months of
the year to go as it rains like crazy there averaging 72 inches a year and
tourists pack it like a sardine can for those few good months. Oh well, at
least I got to Angkor Wat way before that was overrun by busloads of tourists.
So I enjoy any documentary I come across on the subject and though this PBS
45 minute documentary wasn’t all that good I still like seeing the photo
shots. One of my pet peeves are documentaries that recreate historical scenes
with actors and costumes – I really find it insulting – just tell me something
I don’t know – show some old photos – no need to see crappy recreations that
have become so prevalent in documentaries now. There isn’t that much here
but still too much for my taste. My favorite thing is actually just watching
The Great Courses where a professor just lectures to you like being in a
class room – watching one now on Asia Minor that has I think 24 different
lectures. I don’t need to see people dressed up in togas.
But anyway, every time I see something on Machu Picchu I feel amazed.
These incredible buildings made of granite rock formed perfectly to fit together
high up a mountain days away from the nearest town that could supply food
or labor. As far as archeologists can tell they had no rock cutting implements,
had no animals that could be used for transport and had no wheeled vehicles.
It was all done manually. No one knows for sure the purpose of the settlement
or why this location was chosen or why the people who lived there just disappeared.
The Incas who built it had no writing or any carvings that would tell us
– so to some degree it is just guess work. But they believe it was begun
by the first Inca ruler around 1450 as a summer home. Some summer home. It
took around 50 years to finish and only lasted for a short period until the
Spanish defeated the Incas and their huge empire collapsed. Again the experts
guess that either small pox that the Spaniards brought with them killed the
inhabitants or that after the Incas were defeated they just left on their
own. But the Spaniards who were in the habit of destroying Inca temples never
knew of Machu Picchu and so it remained to a large degree undamaged until
it was “discovered” by Hiram Bingham in 1911 and publicized to the world.
I put discovered in quotes because like the Lost City of Angkor Wat it was
really never lost – locals knew about both – but they had both become covered
up by jungles and time.
(first
photo from Bingham of Machu Picchu)
The Incas were amazing engineers obviously but what I learned from this was
how the Incas built a series of terraces leading up to the city with different
levels going deep into the earth that captured the water for farming and
also protected the mountain from erosion. There was also a water drainage
system that collected the immense amount of rain both for use and to keep
the city from flooding. Just amazing. Maybe in my next life. 45 minutes.
