Turn Right at MacHu Picchu 12-Copy Floor Display - Mark Adams [27]
One of Bingham’s great strengths as a historian was compiling evidence. At Choquequirao he closely followed the protocol laid out in the Royal Geographical Society’s handbook Hints to Travellers, which served as a sort of Exploring for Dummies for two generations of novice globe-trotters. (“In one of the chapters I found out what should be done when one is confronted by a prehistoric site,” Bingham wrote. “Take careful measurements and plenty of photographs and describe as accurately as possible all finds.”) His four busy days on the hillside above the Apurimac were a dress rehearsal for the discoveries he would make at Machu Picchu two years later. Bingham was also honing his skills as a selfpromoter. Within days of his departure from Choquequirao, a short notice appeared in The New York Tribune: “Professor Hiram Bingham, of Yale University, who is in Southern Peru on a trip of historical research, writes that he has made discoveries of Inca remains near Abancay of the greatest importance.”
What Bingham couldn’t have known at the time he arrived was how much Choquequirao resembles Machu Picchu. Like its cousin, Choquequirao is built on a ridge far above a sacred river, with extraordinary mountain views in almost all directions. It was situated to look out onto three skyscraping peaks—important apus, or mountain gods, in Inca cosmology—much like the sacred summits visible from Machu Picchu. Both sites have distinct upper and lower levels, were built around a central plaza and were designed with an elevated viewing platform at one end. Both are surrounded by stone-walled terraces that served as places to plant crops and as engineering supports to buttress a precarious building site. Neither one was, or is, especially easy to get to. And each seems to fuse almost seamlessly with its rocky location, hammered onto its mountaintop like a crown on a cracked molar.
At both sites, the nice views were important for aesthetic and religious reasons. The Incas were pantheists who worshipped nature, and the sun god, Inti, was near the top of the divine pecking order. The Sapa Inca’s right to rule over his theocracy, of course, stemmed from his putative status as the son of the sun. The benevolent Pachamama was (and still is) revered as the goddess of fertility. The largest apus were believed to possess various powers and, in some cases, individual personalities. An Inca priest would have had no shortage of apus to choose from at Choquequirao.
“It’s said that the Spaniards never found Machu Picchu, but I disagree,” John said as we looked up at the ruins. “It’s this place that they never found. The cloud forest here”—thick, misty, high-altitude foliage—“grows over in about three years and can get up to forty feet high.” Indeed, what had looked from afar like grassy, rolling hills fit for a picnic were actually steep slopes crammed with lush, jungly vegetation. Some archaeologists think Choquequirao may be larger than Machu Picchu, though we won’t be sure for a while, since only 20 to 30 percent of Choquequirao has been uncovered. “When this is all cleared, it’ll be one of the most spectacular archaeological sites in the world,” John said.
As is, it’s pretty impressive. The masonry at Choquequirao is not as jaw-dropping as at some Inca sites; the softer stone available in the area required the use of clay as mortar, so the igloo-like precision of the buildings at Cusco and Machu Picchu was impossible to replicate. As an example of location scouting and landscape architecture, though, Choquequirao is a masterpiece. I spent a few hours hobbling up and down the site behind John. Twice, we made the long hike up to the giant hilltop usnu platform that marks the western edge of Choquequirao. Usnus were used to conduct religious rituals. They were also a special interest of John’s. We were followed to this one by a stray puppy that either had a bad paw or was doing a pretty good impression of my Chaplinesque walk.