Machu Picchu is located in the middle of steep mountains and is flanked by the deep canyon formed by the Urubamba river as it passes through this part of the Vilcanota basin.
Machu Picchu is located 2,360 meters above sea level
The landscape is shaped by a series of hills and mountains with steep, almost vertical slopes and deep narrow gorges through which flow sound and rough water streams.
Whenever we face a place whose recorded history there is a great temptation to imagine what it was and who were the people who lived there in its heyday the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu.
We think of people walking the streets and squares, sitting or doing ceremonies, using his dishes, wearing their ornaments, there are no living witnesses or written, but we know that something happened there.
Archaeology and ethnohistory help answer these and other questions, but certainly have limitations. Who lived in Machu Picchu and what they did? If the hypothesis that it was the mausoleum of Pachacutec Inca Yupanqui is valid, it pays to know how he could be there in such conditions.
The mausoleum of the Inca was surrounded by temples, shrines and other places where the Coya, chief panaca "family" of Pachacutec, its servers and worship amautas that kept away from regular circuit of the roads were living in the midst of a orchid forest.
If Machu Picchu was the "home" of the Inca called Patallacta in chronic, must have been built during his long tenure in the early fifteenth century, about 100 years before the Spanish arrived.
According to ancient stories about Machu Picchu say, these homes were used by the Incas for their own amusement and rest while they lived.
The Inca citadel Machu Picchu was equipped with all the necessary resources to operate without relying on outside their own fields, livestock, and other workshops.
source : Machu-Picchu.cc - Difundiendo el Turismo de Machu Picchu en el Mundo
