Experience One of The Seven Wonders at This New Machu Picchu Exhibition

Hot on the heels of their blockbuster Ramses exhibition that saw over half a million people attend, The Australian Museum is preparing for another golden summer with Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru exhibition.

Featuring 134 priceless artefacts the treasures include golden masks, tomb treasures, jewels, pottery and objects of worship collected from various ancient Peruvian civilisations including objects from the more recent Inca civilisation and Machu Picchu itself.

Machu Picchu, one of the Seven Wonders of the World

Regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the mountain top city of Machu Picchu remains a place of awe but also often covered in fog and mystery as one of the final strongholds of the incredible Inca empire which lasted a short two hundred years until it succumbed to the Spanish in 1572.

In its short two hundred year history the Inca built upon past civilisations and forged an empire that included 20 million people and became one of the world’s greatest imperial states, all without the wheel, steel and a system of writing.

Like the ancient Egyptians at various stages of their empire, the Incas and some fo their predecessors worshiped the sun, and this is incorporated in many of the the designs on show.

Also as with the Ramses exhibition, this one came about due to personal contacts of The Australian Museum’s director, Kim McKay AO.

“It’s sometimes your connections and when i worked at National Geographic in American in the early 2000s I worked on a number of projects in Peru,” Kim McKay said.

“Intriguing” golden pottery

One of these contacts was a conservationist called Joey Koechlin who was working with Terry Garcia to repatriate Peruvian objects held by Yale University from the time of the Hiram Bingham’s expedition to Machu Picchu in 1911.

Many of these objects are featured in this exhibition.

“This is the largest amount of gold ever to leave Peru (legally) in an exhibition and people will be in awe of the golden objects,” McKay said.

“There is also some intriguing and exceptional pottery that is very sophisticated.

“This exhibition reveals through these beautiful objects the way that the story of an incredible civilisation is told.”

Some of the pottery on show in Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru feature erotic scenes, not unlike those represented in ancient Greek pottery.

By the time of the Inca’s demise at the hands of the Spanish and disease its empire stretched some 3,600km along the coast and the Andes servicing a network of cites with roads, suspension bridges, tunnels to carry agricultural produce and information.

Geoglyphs and the language of the Incas

One of the Inca predecessors include the mysterious Nazca, famous for their group of geoglyphs created in the southern desert of Peru between 500BC and 500AD.

“We also have objects from some the earlier civilisations such the Chavin culture from 800BC to 200BC and the Moche, 1st century AD to 8th century AD who were famous for their gold-smithing and Huacos portraits,” McKay said.

It seems incredible today that with all of these cultures achievements none of them developed a system of writing, but communicated in an ingenious alternative way.

“They spoke a language of of course but they didn’t have writing as we know it, instead they relied on quipu, which were textiles with knots and only the highest order of people were taught to read them,” McKay said.

Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru has a very rare example on display in the show.

Machu Picchu in virtual reality

An exciting addition to the main exhibition is a separate Virtual reality experience.

“During Covid, when the area was closed to tourists, the team went there with drones and filmed Machu Picchu from the air,” McKay said.

“This has been turned into a magical VR experience where on of the Peruvian gods, the Condor, takes you flying off the top of Machu Picchu, and it actually feels like you are flying.”

For Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru The Australian Museum has partnered with NEON, Museo Larco and the Ministry of Culture of Peru.

Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru is on at The Australian Museum from 23 Nov to 28 Feb, 2025.