Machu Picchu's real name discovered
Historian claims Machu Picchu's real name is 'Patallaqta'
For years, those on tours of South America have been drawn to the famous Inca ruins of Machu Picchu, situated high in the Andes mountains of Peru.
But, according to Spanish historian Mari Carmen Martin Rubio, for all these years academics and tourists alike have been getting the name of the 15th century Inca site wrong.
She claims that its original name isn't Machu Picchu but in fact 'Patallaqta', which comes from the Quechua words 'pata', meaning 'step', and 'llaqta' which means 'city' or 'town'.
Translating an original report from Spanish newspaper El Pais, Peruthisweek.com explains that Rubio made the discovery after finding an 82-chapter account of the colonization of the Incas, in the Bartolome March library in Madrid.
Previously, only 18 of the chapters of the text, written by Juan De Betanazos in 1551, were thought to still be in existence.
The accounts are based on Betanazos's conversations with Inca people at the time of the Spanish conquest of the region, including with the wife of the last Inca emperor Atahualpa and other important figures.
In the texts he writes that Inca Pachacutec, widely believed to have overseen the construction as Machu Picchu as one of his estates, had asked to be buried in "his homes in Patallaqta".
"Machu Picchu means 'Old Mountain'," said Ms Rubio.
"However in Quechua, 'mountain' is called 'orqo'. 'Picchu' is a derivative of 'peak' in Spanish. It's not its original name."
Her discovery follows the recent news that the tomb of the aforementioned Atahualpa may have been discovered in neighbouring Ecuador.
Ecuadorian historian Tamara Estupinan believes she may have discovered the last Inca emperor's final resting place at a complex of what appear to be ruins of an imperial Inca temple in an area of Ecuador called Sigchos, about 45 miles south of Quito.
Work is now underway to fully excavate the site in hopes of discovering the complex does indeed the house the tomb of Atahualpa
