Maccu Piccu.... how the hell?

There are so many amazing strucutres built so long ago, leaving to ask us "how the hell did they make that?" However, most are at, or near sea level, making the transportation of materials a little more possible (yet still amazing) than transpoting materials up mountains. Maccu Piccu is around 9,000 ft, meaning not only is an amazing height, the amount of oxygen in the air is quite scarce. Now with the set back of mountains, less oxygen to breathe, and them not having the technology we have, HOW THE HELL DID THEY DO IT? If you look at pictures, you can see what as achievement it was to build such a city.

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The pictures may seem like it was "an easier build than most other ancient cities/ structures" however, you have to realize maccu piccu covers over 3 miles of mountains. And during the time of building, the ENTIRE area was covered in thick jungle... not my desirable working conditions

People from regions with high elevation adapt quite well. Not having as much oxygen at that altitude is something their bodies have overcome. Ever been to Peru? These people run up and down the streets and hills with no problems while tourists huff and puff to walk up 100 feet of road. It's amazing.

How is this possible? The altitude stimulates their bodies to create more oxygen carrying molecules in their blood. The body can sense the change, and the kidneys start cranking out the chemical that starts off the process. More red blood cells are produced, hemoglobin kicks up, and they adapt by carrying more oxygen in their blood. It's similar to athletes who dope their own blood by putting red blood cells back in their bodies for extra energy and endurance.

Take out that physical limitation, and motivation is a powerful force. It's very possible to build such an impressive city.

And beside adaptation, dont forget the very important aspect of TIME. Buildings like these arent built in a year or even a decade, no matter how easy or hard it is to transport materials. Comparing construction to *anything* we do today is impossible, because we simply cant relate to the build-for-greater-good-until-its-finished concept in our modern capitalist world based on shedules and deadlines.

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Here’s a silly thought that may or may not be plausible at all.

There’s an old joke about the pyramids. When a tourist asks how they were built, the locals reply, “from the top down!”

Maybe that is how the mountain cities were built. Instead of carving blocks and hauling them up the mountain to a plateau, perhaps the tip of the mountain was whittled down to FORM a plateau. Then the whittled chunks were used as blocks. All the stones are moved downhill.
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you have a point. the last buildings that i know of takeing many years to compleate are the cathedrals. i guess castles would also take that long to build, though they were "added on to" rather than takeing so long to compleate. my understanding is that some cathedrals took over 50 years to compleate. that type of "long term" building would be considdered insane by todays standards. the very fact that we are so "right now" oriented would stop us from this type of project.

just look at the "wonders of the world", most if not all of these projects would have been built over years if not generations. look at michael angelo's painting of the sisteen chaple. it took much of his life to finnish. the great wall of china would have taken much time as well. also worth note is that many of these long term projects also tend to last, unless detroyed by people. our more "modern" works are inferior construction when compared to these "wonders", and yet we have much more capability for building things things today.

todays society wants things "now". if it takes too long or costs too much, it is not "Worthwhile". we are very "cost" conservitiove today. we will build to the minimum requirement whereas older projects built before there was as much knowlage or capability weas desgned in such a way as to last. it makes for an interesting comparison between capability and desire. today we have knowlage but build for power or instant gratification, where before things were built to "glorify" a deyity or king. these were works of adoration not just greed. many who worked on these "great wonders" had no way to know if they would even be alive to see it's compleation. today if it takes more than a couple of years to build it would not even be attempted.

sure these "old" thing were not very practical space usage wise, or even building time wise. but they DO INSPIRE, unlike todays glass and concreat monalithes that are built in record times. we have lost much of our "artistic" drive when building. wonders were build "by hand" with painstakeing artistry, that produced buildings that had style and grace. today. we "slap" a building together, with little regaurd for how it looks. we have more capability to create but seem to have lost much of the beauty in our buildings. sure we have some that are beautiful to look at, but many more that are just there.

the local art collage down town needed to be expanded. we now have what many call the "floating shoebox" it is one of the ugliest things i have ever seen. the old part of the building was plain to begin with. they decided to add "on top" of the existing structure.basicaly it is a boxsupported by multi-coloured pillers about 4 stories above the building, weth a shaft for an elivator and a straight stairwell conecting it. the addition is a black and white "checkerboard" pattern with a few seemingly random coloured sqaures placed in it. a friend attended the meetings in which the desighn was accepted. she said most people there complained about the ugliness of the design. the architecht basicaly said something like "i am an award winnind designer. i know what is good, you do not". even though no one seemed to want it built and would have liked something with a little bit of style, this monstrosity was built instead. i am sure that there are ppictures of this monstrosity. it is the ontario collage of art and design i believe. it is located just north of queen on mc caul in toronto. the home of one of the ugliest buildings arround.

perhapse if we cared more for beauty than speed and cost. we too could be building things that will last and be regaurded as "wonders" by future generations.

yes, it just baffles me that these people could make, that scientists "cant" make when trying to simulate the same situations. Yes, scientist may be overlooking things, or the ancient people might have known something we do not, or they had things we did not assume them to have., whatever it is, its still amazing.

I knew the whole thing about them adapting, thats why there bellies were larger, becuase there lungs and abdomin had to adapt to suckg more air in and so forth.

they also use coc aine to help them work at high altitudes.

regardless of how big or small their lungs are, science has already shown that the stones used in construction came from the next mountain over. so they quarried it went down that mountain then up the other side to the 9000 ft level
no easy task in any time period. Why. what was such a threat that they had to live in such a remote place.

[edit on 4/30/2005 by jurasicdog]

well after it was built, some used it to hiod from the spaniards, and thats when it became taken over by the jungle. Why they built it... someone was bored. Those are the types of things everyopne wishes they knew

Originally posted by tondo
yes, it just baffles me that these people could make, that scientists "cant" make when trying to simulate the same situations.

When 100,000 scientists take 150 years to build something, you'd be amazed what they could do

You can always look at it the opposite way though. Imagine what we HAVE built today... And its not in obscure locations like on a mountain or in the desert. Its in the average joe cities. Massive constructions that boggles the mind.