Machu Picchu has been called the wrong name for over 100 years, horians reveal in a new study

Nestled between the slopes of the Andes, Machu Picchu is a 15th-century Inca Citadel that stands 2,430 metres above sea level. It is located in the Machupicchu Drict within Urubamba Province in Peru and is one of the amazing urban creations of the Inca Empire.
And now, over a hundred years after its discovery, a new academic paper argues that the site has been known the wrong name. According to a study published in Nawpa Pacha: Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies, the Incas, who build the ancient city, called it Huayna Picchu or simply Picchu and not Machu Picchu.

Donato Amado Gonzales, Peru’s minry of culture, and Brian S Bauer, University of Illinois Chicago, revealed that they dug place names on 19th-century maps, information in 17th-century documents, and the original field notes of the US explorer Hiram Bingham — who is credited for the rediscovery of the citadel in 1911 — and found that not a single document refers to the famous site as Machu Picchu.
“We began with the uncertainty of the name of the ruins when Bingham first visited them and then reviewed several maps and atlases printed before Bingham’s visit to the ruins,” Bauer said in a press statement. “There is significant data which suggest that the Inca city actually was called Picchu or more likely, Huayna Picchu.”
The most definitive connection that they found with the original name of the highest mountain near the ancient city was in accounts written Spanish conquerors. (Source: Pixabay)
Further, the researchers found that a 1904 atlas that was published seven years before Bingham arrived in Peru referred to the ruins as Huayna Picchu. Also, Bingham was told in 1911 of ruins called Huayna Picchu along the Urubamba River. In 1912, a landowner’s son later told the US explorer that the ruins were indeed called Huayna Picchu.
According to Bauer, the most definitive connection that they found with the original name of the highest mountain near the ancient city was in accounts written Spanish conquerors soon after they seized it.

“We end with a stunning, late 16th-century account when the indigenous people of the region were considering returning to reoccupy the site which they called Huayna Picchu,” he said.
However, despite the discovery of its original name, Bauer mentioned that the name is likely to remain Machu Picchu. “We would not suggest that the name be changed since Machu Picchu is known worldwide,” he said, CNN reported.
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