Machu Picchu Granite

Machu picchu s most distinct and famous structures include the temple of the sun and the intihuatana stone a sculpted granite rock that is believed to have functioned as a solar clock or calendar.

Machu picchu granite.

The inca citadel of machu picchu attracts thousands of tourists year after year. Many of the stone blocks weigh more than 50 tons and all are cut and fitted together in such a precise. The inca followed the faults digging up the already loosened debris. The mainstream theory is however that hundreds of men must have worked together to push these rocks up the.

Inca builders chipped and chiseled stones to construct their citadel of machu picchu from a 250 million year old granite quarry. The buildings of machu picchu. Machu picchu is a city comprised of more than 200 buildings temples houses pathways fountains and altars all cut from grey granite from the mountain top. The granitoid pluton of machu picchu is part of the larger quillabamba granite which is a magmatic complex now exposed in the eastern cordillera of central peru.

The underlying rocks are 246 million year old granite lancelot et al 1978 with local dykes of bright green serpentine that outcrops along the inca trail. The well developed crystals within the granite derived from its slow cooling history as a magma makes it an ideal rock for carving hammer and making. Machu picchu is located high in the peruvian mountains. The construction of machu picchu.

The temples terraces and living structures at machu picchu were built with granite a material abundant in the area. There is no evidence of any fortified walls which means that it was not a fortress. Is that the tour of the archaeological site is a visit that never ceases to amaze locals and strangers alike. Most of the granite rocks used in machu picchu s construction weigh well over 50 pounds.

The report which appears in the book geology in the conservation of machu picchu states. In the southern part of the ruin is the sacred rock also known as the temple of the sun it was called the mausoleum by bingham. Scholars still have no clue how people who didn t have the technology of a wheel could have pushed these rocks up the steep andean mountainside. Few of machu picchu s white granite structures have stonework as highly refined as that found in cuzco but several are worthy of note.

Along faults the hard granite of the 250 million year old machu picchu batholith was crushed by tectonic movements. Granite cutting is a difficult operation even with modern equipment and can take hours to cut.