What makes Machu Picchu’s stonework famous is not the scale but the fit. The best Inca masonry is dry-set — no mortar, no gaps — with polygonal blocks shaped so precisely that a credit card won’t slide between them. The technique is called ashlar, and the Incas took it further than anyone else did.
The showpiece is the Temple of the Sun on the western side of the citadel. Semi-circular, built around a boulder that was the altar before the temple was built on top of it, with a window aligned to the June solstice sunrise. The curved walls are made of blocks that fit each other and nothing else.
Peruways guided tours spend time on the construction rather than rushing through to the viewpoints. Our guides can show you the earthquake-proofing — walls that lean inward at a slight angle, blocks that interlock in both directions — that has kept the citadel standing through five centuries of Andean seismic activity.
Book a Machu Picchu guided tour at Peruways. Our packages include the train, the bus up from Aguas Calientes, and a licensed Peruvian guide.
