There is a theory that Machu Picchu was really just a resort for the well-to-do and rulers of what is now Peru. The sexier theory I was taught was that it had great and undiscovered meaning — something spiritual. The more prosaic explanation (here, a market) and in Machu Picchu, Club Med for the wealthy, is probably closer to reality. You first have to eat, and every body wants to “get away from it all.”
We, apparently, agree...