Machu Picchu

It is a 15th-century Inca citadel, located in the Eastern Cordillera of southern Peru, on a 2,430 meters (7,970 feet) mountain ridge.  It is located in the Cusco The region, Urubamba Province, Machu Picchu District, above the Sacred Valley, which is 80 kilometers (50 mi) northwest of Cusco and through which the Urubamba River flows, cutting through the Cordillera and creating a canyon with a tropical mountain climate.

Most archaeologists believe that Machu Picchu was constructed as an estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuteq (1438–1472). Often mistakenly referred to as the “Lost City of the Incas” it is the most familiar icon of Inca civilization. The Incas built the estate around 1450 but abandoned it a century later at the time of the Spanish Conquest/invasion. Although known locally, it was not known to the Spanish during the colonial period and remained unknown to the outside world until American historian Hiram Bingham brought it to international attention in 1911.

Machu Picchu was built in the classical Inca style, with polished dry-stone walls. Its three primary structures are the Intihuatana, the Temple of the Sun, and the temple of the Three Windows. Most of the outlying buildings have been reconstructed in order to give tourists a better idea of how they originally appeared.  By 1976, thirty percent of Machu Picchu had been restored and restoration and cleaning vegetation continues now days

Machu Picchu was declared a Peruvian Historic Sanctuary in 1981 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.  In 2007, Machu Picchu was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.