Q&A
Why is it called Machu Picchu?
• SHORT ANSWER
The Incan citadel was named for a mountain, but was it the right mountain?
• LONG ANSWER
High up in the Andes of Peru, the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu remained hidden from the Spanish conquerors and unknown, largely, to westerners until 1911. That was when local farmer Melchor Arteaga showed the way to an American professor and explorer named (nope, not Indiana Jones) Hiram Bingham, introducing the mysterious site as Machu Picchu.
The name means ‘old peak’ in Quechua, the language of the Incas and still spoken by millions of people today, in reference to one of the two mountains that ruler Pachacuti’s mid-15th century royal retreat sits between. Bingham started using it in his field notes, and so did newspaper reports of his ‘discovery’ and subsequent excavations.
New research, however, published in 2022 in Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology suggests the Inca themselves would not have known the citadel as Machu Picchu. Instead, they likely chose the name of the other mountain, Huayna Picchu (‘young peak’), or just Picchu. Apparently, Bingham was told both options, but for some reason the old beat the new and Machu Picchu stuck. But as they’re both Quechuan and each refers to one of the mountains at the site, this research is unlikely to bring about an official name change.
