Machu Picchu Hooter in Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu is actually called something completely different

The “Forgotten City” Machu Picchu is older than previously thought.

It may also have the wrong name.

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Last year, it was discovered that the Inca city was older than previously thought, since the 1520s.
Now one is not quite sure about it Machu Picchu It is really called Machu Picchu.

Instead, the tourist attraction should be named Huayna Picchu.

Peruvian historian Donato Amado Gonzalez and American archaeologist Brian Bauer are the ones who conclude in a new report that the Inca people who built the city among the clouds actually called it Huayna Picchu, or simply Picchu – the name of the mountaintop it rises above. rubble.

The guide said the wrong name

The report contains several historical sources that refer to the city with the forgotten name.
When American explorer Hiram Bingham first climbed into the city in 1911 and asked its name, he was told it was known as Huayna Picchu. But a few days later, a tour guide told him he called it Machu Picchu, writing for the NPR news channel.

An atlas from 1904 mentions the city of Huayna Picchu.

– Perhaps it was not Machu Picchu for the Incas, but now it is Machu Picchu for the world, says Amado Gonzalez, to the news channel.

400,000 visitors annually

In 1983, Machu Picchu was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. Every year, about 400,000 tourists visit the city. It was inhabited until 1532 when Spain invaded Peru, and after about 400 years it was rediscovered by forest fire.

The report was published in Nea Pasha: Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies.