For hundred years Machu Picchu Has Been Called the Wrong Name, historians reveal the real name

Machu Picchu is a 15th-century Inca Citadel that is nestled between the slopes of the Andes and stands 2,430 metres above sea level. Located in Machupicchu District within Urubamba Province in Peru, Machu Picchu Has Been Called the Wrong Name for Over 100 Years. Historians Reveal Its True Identity

According to the reports, the Incas who had built the ancient city called it Huayna Picchu. As per Emily Dean, professor of anthropology at Southern Utah University in Cedar City, Huayna translates to ‘new or young’, while Picchu means ‘mountain peak’ in the Quechua language. She added that Machu means ‘old’ and we’ve been calling it old mountains peak.

According to a report, by author Brian Bauer, professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Incan settlement was believed to have been built somewhere around 1420 as an estate for royal Incas living in Cuzco, the capital of Incan empire.

The report added that when the Spaniards had conquered the Incas , Huayna Picchu was abandoned and was hidden in the Andes mountains for centuries until it was rediscovered in 1911 by the American explorer Hiram Bingham.

Based on the information provided to Bingham by his guide Melchor Arteaga, a farmer who lived in the area, Bingham had decided to call the ancient city Machu Picchu.

During research into Machu Picchu, Bauer found evidence that its original name was something else. A historian at the Ministry of culture in Peru- Donato Amado Gonzales independently discovered the same pattern and decided to team up to find the real name together.

The researchers went on to look at Bingham’s notes where he was uncertain of the name when he visited them and from there Amado Gonzales and Bauer went on to review the maps and atlases that were printed before and after Bingham’s visit.

Bauer said that one of the most stunning documents was a report from 1588 that stated the Indigenous people of the Vilcabamba region considered returning to Huayna Picchu.

According to Dean, the name error is not a surprise as many non-Peruvian archaeologists did not put effort into researching the names of the place and did not understand Quechua completely.

Despite discovering the area’s original name, Bauer said the name likely is to remain Machu Picchu.