This Picture Gives a General View of About One-Half of the City of Machu Picchu, by Hiram Bingham III, 1912
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This Picture Gives a General View of About One-Half of the City of Machu Picchu

Hiram Bingham III

1912

Classification
Photograph
Museum
Wikimedia Commons
Credit line
National Geographic Magazine, April 1913, [1]
Rights
Public domain, as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Kids profiles and older: it shows nature, places, still life or a children's book. How works are placed

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About this work

On the left are the western agricultural terraces. Above them is the Sacred Plaza, with the Chief Temple and the three-windowed temple to the right of it. Above these and connected with them by the finest stairway in Machu Picchu is the sacred hill, on which is located the Intihuatana, or sun dial stone. In the central picture in the immediate foreground are the rough boulders near which we found most of the little bronze pins and artifacts. Above them are the terraced gardens and a thatched hut built by the modern Indians. Above this in turn is one of the most densely crowded portions of the city, while to the right above the long stairway is the group called the Private Garden Group, and below it, on the extreme right, the group characterized by greatest ingenuity in its stonework. The beautiful peak of Huayna Picchu overshadows the city like a sentinel. On its summit were found a few rough caves whence guards could give warning of approaching danger.