This ancient monument of huge stones solitarily standing on the
Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England has captured imaginations for
centuries. Theories about who built it have included the Druids,
Greeks, Phoenicians, and Atlanteans. Speculation on the reason it was
built range from human sacrifice to astronomy.
Investigations over the last 100 years have revealed that
Stonehenge was built in several stages from 2800 - 1800 BC. It seems to
have been designed to allow for observation of astronomical phenomena -
summer and winter solstices, eclipses, and more.
Machu Pichu
Machu Picchu is the most spectacular archaeological Incan site in South
America. This Peruvian mysterious "Lost City of the Incas" has
fascinated history buffs for almost a century. Aside from its
spectacular setting in the Andes, Machu Picchu is fascinating to
archaeologists and historians because it is not documented in any of
the ancient chronicles of the Spanish conquistadors. The seafaring
Spanish conquered the Incan capital Cuzco and moved the seat of power
to coastal Lima. In their records, the conquistadors mention numerous
other Incan cities, but not Machu Picchu. Therefore, no one is certain
what function the city served.
Machu Picchu was known to only a few Peruvian farmers until 1911, when
an American historian named Hiram Bingham almost stumbled across it
while searching for the lost city of Vilcabamba. Bingham found
buildings thickly overgrown with vegetation. He thought at first he had
found Vilcabamba, and he returned several times to dig at the site and
try and solve its mysteries. Vilcabamba was later found to be much
further into the jungle. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, archaeologists
from Peru and the United States continued to clear away the forest from
the ruins, and later expeditions also attempted to solve the Machu
Picchu mystery. Over ninety years later we still don't know much about
the city. Current speculation is that the Incas had already deserted
Machu Picchu before the Spanish arrived in Peru. This would explain why
the Spanish chronicles do not mention it. One thing is certain. Machu
Picchu has so many ornamental sites with exceptionally high quality
stone works that it must have been an important ceremonial center at
some point in Incan history. Interestingly, in 1986 archaeologists
found a city larger than Machu Picchu just five kilometers north of the
city. They have named this "new" city Maranpampa (or Mandorpampa). It
is not open to the public, but maybe Maranpampa will help solve the
mystery of Machu Picchu. For now, visitors have to come to their own
conclusions as to its purpose.
