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Tourist hotspot and archaeological site Machu Picchu in Peru
Photo:
Paolo Aguilar/ epa efe rex/ dpa
Machu Picchu is one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world.
Every year hundreds of thousands of tourists make a pilgrimage to the Peruvian ruined city.
But since its discovery around a hundred years ago, it has apparently been given a wrong name, as scientists have now discovered.
The Unesco World Heritage site was named Huayna Picchu by its builders, the Inca people.
At least that's what a Peruvian historian and a US archaeologist claim.
Huayna Picchu is actually the name of the mighty mountain peak that looms behind the Inca city on most motifs.
Machu Picchu currently denotes both the archaeological site and the mountain on the other side of the ruins.
These are among the most famous structures of mankind.
The terraced buildings at a height of more than 2400 meters fascinate visitors because of the perfect, seamless stone walls, which time apparently could hardly harm.
No references to the name of Machu Picchu
However, none of the historical sources mention the name of Machu Picchu, write researchers Donato Amado Gonzales of the Peruvian Ministry of Culture and Brian Bauer of the University of Illinois at Chicago in an article for the journal "Journal of Andean Archaeology".
Among other things, they looked for the name on historical maps and in the original field notes of the discoverer of the Inca city, the American explorer Hiram Bingham.
In 1911 he came across the ruins in the Andes.
The problem: At the time the ruins were rediscovered, the Inca city had fallen into oblivion.
According to the researchers, the site was hardly known even among locals.
"The results suggest that the Inca city was originally called Picchu, or rather Huayna Picchu," the scientists write.
The name Machu Picchu only spread from 1911, after the publications of the discoverer Bingham.
The archaeologist Bingham allegedly first heard the name "Huayna Picchu" when locals first told him about the forgotten place.
In historical records from the 16th and 17th centuries, which come from the Spanish conquerors, the Inca city was also described in this way, the experts report.
However, it is unlikely that the name will be changed later.
The name »Machu Picchu« is known all over the world.
Tourism companies should have little interest in renaming.
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