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Portrait of Machu Picchu

Geography · Landmarks & wonders

Machu Picchu

c. 1450

Peru — the Eastern Cordillera above the Urubamba valley

A 15th-century Inca citadel on a ridge 2,430 m up in the Peruvian Andes, most likely a royal estate of the emperor Pachacuti, abandoned about a century after it was built and never found by the Spanish. It was brought to world attention by Hiram Bingham in 1911, and voted one of the New7Wonders of the World in 2007.

How to spot them

  • ▸Terraced stonework on a knife-edge ridge between two peaks, 2,430 m up
  • ▸Quiz clue: 'Pachacuti', 'Hiram Bingham', 'Urubamba', 'Intihuatana', 'Huayna Picchu'
  • ▸Never found by the Spanish conquistadors, so it was never sacked
  • ▸Dry-stone masonry cut so precisely that no mortar was used

Key facts

Built around 1450, most likely as a royal estate of the Inca emperor Pachacuti (c. 1450)

No contemporary written record survives to confirm it

Brought to international attention in 1911 by the American explorer Hiram Bingham (1911)

He was actually hunting for Vilcabamba, the last Inca refuge; local farmers already knew the site, and Agustín Lizárraga had reached it years earlier

The Spanish never found it, so it was never sacked

It was abandoned about a century after it was built, probably around the conquest

It sits at 2,430 m on a ridge between a peak named 'Old' and one named 'Young'

The trekking peak behind the classic viewpoint is Huayna Picchu

Its Intihuatana is a carved granite outcrop aligned to the sun

The name means roughly 'hitching post of the sun'

Its walls are ashlar masonry, cut so exactly that no mortar was needed

The finest work is in the Temple of the Sun and the Room of the Three Windows

A 2007 New7Wonders winner, built without mortar and unknown to the outside world until 1911 (2007)

Quick-fire facts

  • •It stands at 2,430 m (7,970 ft), about 80 km north-west of Cusco
  • •A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983, inscribed as the Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu — a mixed site, listed for both culture and nature
  • •Bingham's expeditions were backed by Yale and the National Geographic Society; the artefacts he removed were returned to Peru from 2011 onwards
  • •The classic four-day Inca Trail approaches it through the Sun Gate, Intipunku
  • •Peru caps daily visitor numbers and issues timed entry tickets to limit wear on the site
  • •Common misconception: it is often called 'the Lost City of the Incas', but that was Bingham's name for Vilcabamba; it was a royal retreat, not a lost city, and it was not lost to local people
  • •Another misconception: the mountain looming behind it in every photograph is Huayna Picchu, not the peak the site is named after

Drill it — 7 cards

1 / 7new card

Sources