The Machu Picchu Guidebook: A Self-Guided Tour

This book is a "must have" if you are visiting Machu Picchu. I carried this book in my backpack for 4 days on the Inca Trail hike and it was well worth carrying the extra weight. Machu Picchu is the remains of an entire urban area complete with agricultural, residential, royal and religious areas. You should plan on spending at least a day at Machu Picchu to fully experience this site. This book is all you need for a complete self-guided tour of Machu Picchu. This book covers everything in detail and packs in a lot more information and insights into the Inca culture and style of architecture than any guided tour will cover (guided tours typically last only 2-3 hours). Even if you have a guide, this book will be an useful supplement. The book comes with a clear fold out map of the entire Machu Picchu site. The book divides the site into several zones (the Temple of the Sun area, the Royal Residence, the Sacred Plaza etc.) and devotes a separate chapter to each zone. Each chapter comes with its own maps, nice photos and concise descriptions of everything that is interesting to see in that zone. The authors have ordered the chapters according to their recommended sequence of areas for exploring Machu Picchu. I followed the same sequence and would highly recommend it also. Apart from these above chapters the book also contains several additional chapters that provide background and supplemental information. The chapter on the Inca Water Management system is particularly enlightening because the complexity of the water system is not readily apparent when you stare over the maze of ruins in Machu Picchu. Water still flows into Machu Picchu from a mountain spring and this chapter provides some insight into the ingenuity of the Inca engineers in providing ample water for the agricultural terraces and the inhabitants of the urban center. The chapter titled "Side Trips" gives you ample information on the sites around Machu Picchu like the Inca Drawbridge, the trail to the peak of Huayna Pichu and the Temple of the Moon etc. One other nice feature is that the new edition has an interesting fold-out section showing an artist's depiction of how Machu Picchu looked liked in its heyday. If you are interested in learning more about Inca architecture, I would highly recommend Inca Architecture by Gasparini and Margolies. Hiram Bingham's Inca Land and Lost City Of The Incas are staple reads before you venture out into the land of the Incas. Also, some general advice on visiting the Machu Picchu site. The site opens early in the morning at 6am and the site is relatively calm until the trains from Cusco start arriving at around 10:30 am onwards. If you do the Inca Trail hike you will get to Machu Picchu at sunrise. If not, I would suggest that you take the train from Cusco the previous day and spend the night in Aguas Calientes. This way you can catch the early bus to Machu Picchu (a 20 minute ride) and enjoy the site before the crowds a

When you hike at high altitudes, you take your backpack weight seriously. This book is well worth its 15 ounces. It takes you through the ruins with multiple maps and illustrations. It explains what we do and don't know about the functions of the buildings and terraces. The book is organized by areas. When you reach a certain section of the ruins, you can turn to that section for pictures, descriptions and suggestions on how to walk through the area. The section on water management illustrates the brilliance of the Inca engineers.The section on the climb up Huayna Picchu, is detailed and makes the climb less daunting. The description also give appropriate cautions about climbing there in slippery weather. On several pages, there are photographs of the ruins next to artist's renditions of what the buildings might have looked like when they were in use in the 1500s.

I've travelled a lot, but rarely with guidebooks. It's easier to borrow them from the library, xerox the maps, and travel light. This guidebook is an exception. Its photos, maps, drawings, and diagrams are very informative as well as beautiful (rare), its explanations clear, and the understanding it gives is vital to wise use of time at a site which can be very confusing to navigate. It's NEEDED, to find your way through a very labyrinthian place. I found myself pouring over the book for hours before going to Peru, and learning more from the book and the research behind it than any of us knew was there. With it, I was able to understand a very complex site when I arrived there. Geology is a vital element in the power of this place, many of its most exciting places are hidden underneath the major temples or accessed from some remote corner, and the motivations for the very unusual siting and use of natural rock by the builders difficult to unravel. Its about the only guidebook I would recommend that people buy and travel with. Thank you, Ruth and Alfredo!

I went to Machu Picchu for the first time last year with nothing more than a camera, an issue of the April 2002 National Geographic and "Insight Guides- Peru". I thought I had planned my trip fairly well, but felt a little disappointed with the information I had read about Machu Picchu. After exploring Machu Picchu for 2 days, I ran into several tourists who were carrying Ruth Wright's book. They ALL seemed so confident and knowledgable during their treks because of the information and map contained in the book. I then ran into one of the Wright Water Engineers who came with Ruth to Peru to do some surveys of Machu Picchu. The gentleman was nice enough to give me one of his maps (the same one contained in the book), which was to become invaluable to me during my journey. When I got home, I read the book, cover to cover and have been reliving my journey through it. DON'T PLAN A TRIP TO MACHU PICCHU WITHOUT IT!! It's like taking Ruth with you to Machu Picchu.

Late one July afternoon in 1982, I found myself perched on a ledge overlooking the Machu Picchu archaeological site some 500 feet below. Having probed the bushes near the site's so-called guard tower, I had found some overgrown stepping stones and had begun hiking upward. One half-buried step led to the next, and within an hour I had reached this ledge. Along the way I had discovered a remarkable semi-circular stone staircase -- and managed to avoid the bushmasters said to be slithering nearby.As an anthropologist myself, I wish that I had had a copy of a guidebook even half as good as that authored by Ruth Wright and Alfredo Valencia Zegarra. Combining a clearly written text with intriguing photos and practical diagrams, The Machu Picchu Guidebook is the single best publication on this site that I have seen. While written primarily for the astute traveler, it will be of use to professionals as well.My own work with indigenous water systems in places like Guyana and Indonesia led to my cursory examination in 1982 of the system at Machu Picchu. It proved fascinating, but I had little time for study. To their credit, Ruth Wright and her husband, Ken Wright (in conjunction with a number of their colleagues from the U.S. and Peru) instituted a remarkably thorough archaeological/engineering investigation of this Incan system in the 1990s. This same degree of care and attention to detail is seen in the guidebook, which had its genesis in their archaeological research.In conclusion, it should be noted that Ruth Wright is a former chair of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of The Explorers Club. Her book brings an explorer's enthusiasm to Machu Picchu, while maintaining high standards of authorship.