Peru -- Primarily Machu Picchu (Dec 2010)

This is a few minutes later. This was taken after we had gone thru the gate and were at the edge of the area of Machu Picchu ruins.

The city is on a saddle-shaped area between two mountains,. The main axis of the city (of the saddle) runs roughly south-north. A peak named Machu Picchu is on the south end (actually perhaps a bit east of south. A mountain named Huayna Picchu is near the north end. Huayna Picchu has at least two named peaks, The tow names I encountered seemed to be called Little Huayna Picchu and Big Huayna Picchu (as best I could tell and can remember).

We entered the "city" (the ruins) on the east side of the "saddle" in what had been a terraced agriculturual area.

The various directions I'm throwing around are based soley on the map shown a few photos ago. While there (on a cloudy. rainy day), I was completely turned around and had no idea where any direction was.