My Vacation Plan
Lily Whigham Social Studdies Hour 8
Machu Pichu
Machu Pichu is located in the Inca Empire and it is a huge tourist site. Machu Pichu is a beautiful mountain that is 7970 ft above sea level. Some fun facts are that no wheels were used to transport heavy rocks for the construction of the city. Many of the stones that were used to build the city weighed more than 50 tons. To get the rocks up the mountian they had to chisel the rocks from granite or hundreds of men pushed the heavy rocks up the mountian. The citadel is divided in two parts: Hanan and Urin according with the Inca tradition.
Cusco
Cusco, known as the archaeological capital of the Americas, is home to a storied history that included the rise and fall of the Inca Empire followed by the invasion of Spanish conquistadors in the early 1500s. Today, remnants of both eras share the narrow city streets – from centuries-old baroque cathedrals to exquisite stone masonry – creating a rare collision of Andean and Spanish styles that makes Cusco like no other place on earth
Moray
Moray is an Incan agricultural laboratory that was likely used to cultivate resistant and hearty varieties of plants high in the Andes. The site contains several circular terraces, that could be used to study the effects of different climatic conditions on crops as the lower terraces have lower temperatures. The deepest crater is about 150 meters (492 feet) deep with a temperature difference of up to 15° C between the top and the bottom level.
Isla del Sol
Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun) is a rocky, hilly island located in the southern part of Lake Titicaca. According to the Inca religion, it was the first land that appeared after the waters of a great flood began to recede and the Sun emerged from the island to illuminate the sky once again. As the birthplace of the Sun God, the Incas built several sacred sites on the island. Among these Inca ruins are the Sacred Rock and a labyrinth-like building called Chicana.