Peru - Machu Picchu

PERU

Machu Picchu, also spelled Machupijchu, site of ancient Inca ruins located about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Cuzco, Peru, in the Cordillera de Vilcabamba of the Andes Mountains. It is perched above the Urubamba River valley at an elevation of 7,710 feet (2,350 meters). Machu Picchu appears to have been a sacred, ceremonial city and astronomical observatory. This UNESCO World Heritage site is often referred to as "The Lost City of the Incas" and is one of the most familiar symbols of the Incan Empire. With its spectacular location, it’s the best-known archaeological site on the continent. The stunning Peruvian site of Machu Picchu now becomes the South America's greatest attraction, welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors a year from across the globe. 

Machu Picchu

Historians believe Machu Picchu was built at the height of the Inca Empire, which dominated western South America in the 15th and 16th centuries. For hundreds of years, until the American archaeologist Hiram Bingham stumbled upon it in 1911, the abandoned citadel’s existence was never revealed to the conquering Spaniards and was a secret known only to peasants living in the region. The site’s finely crafted stonework, terraced fields and sophisticated irrigation system bear witness to the Inca civilization’s architectural, agricultural and engineering prowess. The 12 acres of terraces, granite houses, gardens, stairways, ceremonial temples and aqueducts sprawl along a tropical forest ridge above the Río Urubamba. Most of the roughly 150 buildings in Machu Picchu were built of granite so their ruins look like part of the mountains. Many granite blocks weigh 50 tons or more yet are so precisely sculpted and fitted together with such exactitude that the mortarless joints will not permit the insertion of even a thin knife blade. Many buildings had trapezoidal doors and thatched roofs. They used irrigation to grow corn and potatoes.

Machu Picchu terrace structure

Archaeologists have identified several distinct sectors that together comprise the city, including a farming zone, a residential neighborhood, a royal district and a sacred area. Machu Picchu’s most distinct and famous structures include the Temple of the Sun, the Room of the Three Windows, and the Intihuatana stone. These are located in what is known as the Sacred District of Machu Picchu. The Intihuatana stone's purpose is a mystery, with recent research disproving the idea that it acted as a sundial. It may have been used for astronomical observations of some form. It may also be connected with the mountains that surround Machu Picchu. Many modern-day archaeologists believe that Machu Picchu served as a royal estate or sacred religious site for Inca emperors and nobles. Machu Picchu is believed to have been a mystical place, a monument to divinity, where people can feel that they are a creation of God. The high sense of spirituality that inhabits this place seems to transport its visitors to a place where everything "in an unimaginable way" is possible. It is a place where strange forces of nature allow the individuals to reach an incomparable cosmic state, a state that can only be experimented in Machu Picchu. It is one of the most popular archaeological sites of the world, and therefore, the most visited attraction in Peru. Today, nearly one million people visit Machu Picchu every year with a limit of 2500 people daily, to see the sunset over its towering stone monuments and marvel at the mysterious splendor of one of the world's most famous manmade wonders.

The traditional and most frequent is by train from Cuzco city to the station of Machu Picchu Town (Aguas Calientes). Alternative is the Inca Trail, the trekking route. The are no roads, no cars or buses, there are no airport.

Read more Machu Picchu travel guide

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