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Machu Picchu: stones that dance
The Incas built Machu Picchu around 1450, high in the Andes, with no wheels, no iron and no mortar.
mortar A mix of lime, sand and water that binds the stones of a wall.
They carved each stone to fit its neighbor: in the finest walls not even a sheet of paper slips between them.
So when the ground shakes, the stones jostle and settle back into place instead of falling.
Archaeologists now think it was an estate of the emperor Pachacuti, with temples, farming terraces and homes for about 750 people.
The Spanish conquistadors never found it, and the world learned about it in 1911, when local farmers guided Hiram Bingham there.
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