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Machu Picchu Pueblo Cemetery

Urban growth and tourism is taking over this tiny cemetery, serving as a reminder that a transient hotspot is home to some.

By The Taphotourist

Molder, maker, to all things you have given life:

watch over them, keep them living prosperously, fortunately in safety and peace.

Where are you? Outside? Inside? Above this world in the clouds? Below this world in the shades?

Hear me!

Answer me!

― Pachacuti

Nestled, unmarked, in a little plaza behind a football field, the cemetery in Machu Picchu Pueblo (or Aguas Calientes) likely formed when this unplanned town was just a railway worker’s camp.

Designed purely as a tourist outpost for the famous Incan ruins, Machu Picchu Pueblo is testing the limits of it resources with unexpected residency growth that has all but completely taken over the cemetery - half of which lost its original area to makeshift homes.

Known for its hot springs, this small town is at the bottom of a valley (and is yet still over 7,000 above sea level). It enjoys no car or taxi services and has had electricity only since the 1980s. Terrorist activity burdened the area in the 1980s and very early 1990s but today Machu Picchu Pueblo receives around 1,500 visitors a day, most of whom are set on visiting the upper cemetery of the ancient city rather than the local one near Plaza de la Cultura.

Though modern, elements of Inca traditions are sprinkled throughout the cemetery with condor-themed jars and sculptures, representing the upper world. The giant Andean carrion bird is believed to be a messenger between earth and heaven.

Local streams are fed by glaciers that provide a lush environment and help offset the look of ongoing construction projects. Forested hillsides that surround this circular cemetery are slowly converting to urban lots.

Footnotes

I have a great love for cemeteries and the various kinds of graves around the world.

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FootNotes

I have a great love for cemeteries and the various kinds of graves around the world.

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Machu Picchu Pueblo Cemetery

Urban growth and tourism is taking over this tiny cemetery, serving as a reminder that a transient hotspot is home to some.

FootNotes

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