There is abundant archeological evidence that the citadel of Machu Picchu was at one time occupied by the Incas and partly built by them on the ruins of a far older city.  Much of the pottery is unquestionably of the so-called Cuzco style, used by the last Incas.  The more recent buildings resemble those structures on the island of Titicaca said to have been built by the later Incas.  They also resemble the fortress of Uiticos, at Rosaspata, built by Manco about 1537.  Furthermore, they are by far the largest and finest ruins in the mountains of the old province of Uilcapampa and represent the place which would naturally be spoken of by Titu Cusi as the “head of the province.”  Espiritu Pampa does not satisfy the demands of a place which was so important as to give its name to the entire province, to be referred to as “the largest city.”

It seems quite possible that the inaccessible, forgotten citadel of Machu Picchu was the place chosen by Manco as the safest refuge for those Virgins of the Sun who had successfully escaped from Cuzco in the days of Pizarro.  For them and their attendants Manco probably built many of the newer buildings and repaired some of the older ones.  Here they lived out their days, secure in the knowledge that no Indians would ever breathe to the conquistadores the secret of their sacred refuge.

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Figure

The Gorges, Opening Wide Apart, Reveal Uilcapampa’s Granite Citadel, the Crown of Inca Land:  Machu Picchu ------

When the worship of the sun actually ceased on the heights of Machu Picchu no one can tell.  That the secret of its existence was so well kept is one of the marvels of Andean history.  Unless one accepts the theories of its identity with “Tampu-tocco” and “Vilcabamba Viejo,” there is no clear reference to Machu Picchu until 1875, when Charles Wiener heard about it.

Some day we may be able to find a reference in one of the documents of the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries which will indicate that the energetic Viceroy Toledo, or a contemporary of his, knew of this marvelous citadel and visited it.  Writers like Cieza de Leon and Polo de Ondegardo, who were assiduous in collecting information about all the holy places of the Incas, give the names of many places which as yet we have not been able to identify.  Among them we may finally recognize the temples of Machu Picchu.  On the other hand, it seems likely that if any of the Spanish soldiers, priests, or other chroniclers had seen this citadel, they would have described its chief edifices in unmistakable terms.