MACHU PICCHU AND

THE INCA EMPIRE

• The name comes from the Quechua language:

• Machu – old or old person

• Pikchu – “mountain with a broad base which ends in sharp peaks”

• An estate built around 1450 for the Inca emperor Pachacuti.

• The site was known as the “lost city of the Incas” because it was not “discovered” by western explorers until 1911.

• The site is significant because the Spanish conquistadors never found it.

• Machu Picchu is considered to be one of the wonders of the world.

WHAT WAS MACHU PICCHU?

• Sapa Inca – or Emperor

-- of the Kingdom of

Cusco, which he

transformed into the

empire Tawantinsuyu

(the Inca Empire)

• As king, Pachacuti was

considered to be the

“child of the sun”

PACHACUTI INCA YUPANQUI

THE INCA EMPIRE WAS VAST

1438-1533

• Tawantinsuyu is what the Incas called

their empire.

• At its height, the empire included parts

of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia,

Argentina and Chile.

TAWANTINSUYU – THE FOUR UNITED REGIONS

Banner of the Inca Empire

• 1438 -1471 – Pachucuti

• 1471 -1493 – Túpac Inca

Yupanqui

• 1493 -1525 – Huayna Capac

• 1525 -1532– Huáscar

• 1532 – 1533 – Atahualpa

THE INCA EMPIRE HAD SEVERAL RULERS

• In the South American country of Peru.

• High in the Andes Mountains, at nearly

8,000 feet above sea level.

WHERE IS MACHU PICCHU LOCATED?