Machu Picchu was misnamed for 111 years? What is the real name of this wonder?

The ancient Incan city we know as "Machu Picchu" has probably been misnamed for over 100 years.

Machu Picchu is one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world, a wonder of pre-Colombian architecture that has been thoroughly studied for decades and a tourist attraction that attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors. each year.

But a new academic paper argues that since its rediscovery more than a century ago, the site has been misnamed.

A Peruvian historian and a leading American archaeologist believes that this UNESCO world heritage site Machu Picchu is properly called Huayna Picchu or simply Picchu - as the ancient Incans call it. Grand.

According to the latest research, Machu Picchu must have been named Huayna Picchu or simply Picchu.

In their paper, published by 'Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology', Donato Amado Gonzales of the Peruvian Ministry of Culture and Professor Brian S. Bauer from the University of Illinois Chicago (USA) say:

They searched for landmarks on 19th-century maps, information in 17th-century documents and early field records by American explorer Hiram Bingham - discoverer of the modern Inca citadel - and found that there is no single source referring to the site as Machu Picchu.

Once considered the summer retreat of the Inca Emperor Pachacutec, Machu Picchu was memorably "discovered" by the explorer Bingham in 1911, although there is a broad consensus in academia that the city The lost street was never really lost.

This historic site, located in the Peruvian Andes, was built in the 15th century and then abandoned before being found in 1911 by American explorer Hiram Bingham.

Looking for evidence.

But the two main authors - Gonzales and Bauer - say their findings suggest that at the time it was rediscovered more than a century ago, little was known about the ruins, even to those who lived there. in the Cusco region of Peru. [Cusco is a city in southeastern Peru near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes Mountains]. In the early 20th century, the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu were unknown to many locals in the Cusco region.

"We started with uncertainty about the names of the sites when Bingham first visited them and then looked at a number of maps and printed grounds prior to Bingham's visit to the site," Bauer said. ". "There is significant data to suggest that the Inca city was actually called Picchu or more likely Huayna Picchu."

The researchers discovered that the ruins of an Inca town called Huayna Picchu were mentioned in a 1904 atlas published seven years before American explorer Bingham arrived in Peru.

American explorer Hiram Bingham.

Furthermore, investigators say, Bingham's 1911 diary records conversations with Adolfo Quevedo, the leader of a nearby town, who referred to the site as "Huayna Picchu" along the river. Urubamba before he left Cusco to search for the site. The son of a landowner later told Bingham in 1912 that the ruin was called Huayna Picchu.

According to Bauer, the most accurate connections to the original name of the Inca city are preserved in documents written by the Spanish conquistadors shortly after their capture of Cusco in the late 16th century.

In 1990, the Andean scholar John Rowe was the first to use archival documents to argue that "Machu Picchu" was a misnomer. He points to a number of letters and documents from 16th-century Spanish colonists that refer to an ancient Inca town called "Picchu".

The peak now known as Huayna Picchu is still part of the archaeological site, and visitors can hike to the top for the most spectacular view of the ruins at the top of the mountain.

While the study has the potential to spur new debate, some historians seem to believe it's normal to have this name change.

Natalia Sobrevilla, Professor of Latin American History at the University of Kent (UK), said: "All names are invented and subject to change and it doesn't make much of a difference. Machu Picchu is a long-standing name. life is associated with the identity of the Peruvian people, calling another name does not change the historical value it brings".

The Peruvian historian added: "As Shakespeare said: "The rose has a different name, but its scent is still sweet."