Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu in 2007
Shown within Peru
Location	Cusco Region, Peru
Coordinates	13°09′48″S 72°32′44″W / 13.16333°S 72.54556°W / -13.16333; -72.54556
Altitude	2,430 m (7,972 ft)
History
Founded	c. 1450; 574 years ago (1450)
Abandoned	1572; 452 years ago (1572)[1]
Cultures	Inca civilization
Site notes
Discovered	Agustín Lizárraga (1902) Hiram Bingham (1911)
Archaeologists	Hiram Bingham
Website	https://www.machupicchu.gob.pe/?lang=en
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Official name	Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu
Location	Latin America and the Caribbean
Criteria	Mixed: i, iii, vii, ix
Reference	274
Inscription	1983 (7th Session)
Area	38,160.87 ha

Machu Picchu is a 15th-century Inca citadel located in the Eastern Cordillera of southern Peru on a 2,430-meter (7,970 ft) mountain ridge.^[2][3] Often referred to as the "Lost City of the Incas", it is the most familiar icon of the Inca Empire. It is located in the Machupicchu District within Urubamba Province^[4] above the Sacred Valley, which is 80 kilometers (50 mi) northwest of Cusco. The Urubamba River flows past it, cutting through the Cordillera and creating a canyon with a tropical mountain climate.^[5] In reference to the site's name, for most English or Spanish speakers, the first 'c' in Picchu is silent. In English, the name is pronounced /ˌmɑːtʃuː ˈpiːtʃuː/ MAH-choo PEE-choo^[6][7] or /ˌmætʃuː ˈpiːktʃuː/ MATCH-oo PEAK-choo,^[7][8] in Spanish as [ˈmatʃu ˈpitʃu] or [ˈmatʃu ˈpiɣtʃu],^[9] and in Quechua (Machu Pikchu)^[10] as [ˈmatʃʊ ˈpɪktʃʊ].

The Inca civilization had no written language and following the first encounter by the Spanish soldier Baltasar Ocampo, no Europeans are recorded to have visited the site from the late 16th century until the 19th century. As far as historical knowledge extends, there are no existing written records detailing the site during its period of active use. The names of the buildings, their supposed uses, and their inhabitants, are the product of modern archaeologists based on physical evidence, including tombs at the site. Machu Picchu was built in the classical Inca style, with polished dry-stone walls. Its three primary structures are the Temple of the Sun, the Temple of the Three Windows, and the Intihuatana. Most of the outlying buildings have been reconstructed in order to give visitors a better idea of how they originally appeared.^[11] By 1976, 30 percent of Machu Picchu had been restored^[11] and restoration continues.^[12] Most recent archaeologists believe that Machu Picchu was constructed as an estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuti (1438–1472). The Incas built the estate around 1450 but abandoned it a century later, at the time of the Spanish conquest. According to the new AMS radiocarbon dating, it was occupied from c. 1420–1532.^[13] Historical research published in 2022 claims that the site was probably called Huayna Picchu by the Inca people themselves, as it exists on the smaller peak of the same name.^[14][15]

Machu Picchu was declared a Peruvian Historic Sanctuary in 1982 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.^[3] In 2007, Machu Picchu was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in a worldwide internet poll.^[16]