There are no written records concerning Machu Picchu since the Inca did not have a written language and the Spaniards never arrived here. Areas of the city identified by archeologists are conjectures based on components of other ruins where Spaniards did record descriptions in their journals. This is believed to be city temple. These terraces behind the temple would have probably provided food for the priests and possibly as offerings. In the foreground was the city's quarry.
Midfield are agricultural terraces, probably for the typical resident.
In the background is the Inca Trail winding up the mountain for which the city is named. Intihuatana, the hitching post of the sun, is possibly the last remaining seasonal sun dials in Peru. The rest were destroyed by the Spaniards, who as Catholics, found them to be paganistic. Hunter students being followed by a llama at dawn in Machu Picchu. Several llamas had been left at the site after a movie was shot there.