Literally “old mountain” in Quechua, Peru’s dominant indigenous language, Machu Picchu is built into peaks more than 2,400 meters above sea level in southern Peru, where the Andes and the Amazon Basin meet. Archaeologists believe the Incan citadel was built in the 1420s and abandoned sometime in the mid 1500s, around the time Spanish conquistadors invaded the Inca Empire. Machu Picchu’s virtually untouched state upon its rediscovery in the early 20th century indicates that the Spaniards never found it.
Today Machu Picchu is a UNESCO World Heritage site and Peru’s most-frequented tourist attraction, welcoming more than two million visitors annually. It was named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in 2001.
What was Machu Picchu used for?
The current historical consensus is that Machu Picchu was built as a seasonal residence or estate for Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui (1418–1471), a ruler who greatly expanded the reach of the Inca Empire before its fall in 1572. The 32,592-hectare complex encompasses royal and nonroyal residences, sacred structures (including the famed Temple of the Sun and Temple of the Three Windows), plazas, burial grounds, and agricultural terraces.
Machu Picchu is sometimes incorrectly called “the lost city of the Incas.” But archaeological evidence indicates that no more than 750 people lived in Machu Picchu at its peak, most of them essentially support staff to the royal family; it was hardly a “city,” even by 16th-century standards.
How was Machu Picchu built?
Much like Stonehenge, the monolithic statues at Easter Island, and other premodern engineering marvels, much of Machu Picchu’s construction remains shrouded in mystery. Its 200 structures were built with granite blocks shaped to fit together so perfectly that no mortar was needed. The fact that Machu Picchu remains remarkably intact also speaks to the Incas’ architectural ingenuity. Its sophisticated drainage system has successfully rerouted centuries of intense rainfall—some 80 inches a year—and its buildings have withstood earthquakes despite being built on steep slopes.
General view of the ancient Inca ruins of Machu Picchu in the Urubamba valley, seventy-two kilometres from the Andes city of Cusco.
AFP via Getty Images
How did the world learn about Machu Picchu?
Locals who lived in the immediate vicinity had known of the ruins’ existence for centuries, with many families even claiming ownership of parcels of land on the present-day site. But it became known to the rest of the world after Hiram Bingham III, an explorer and professor of South American history at Yale University, journeyed through Peru in search of the “lost city” of Vilcabamba, where the Incas fought their last stand against Spanish conquistadors. When led in 1911 to Machu Picchu’s ruins with the assistance of local guides, Bingham believed he’d found it at last. But the ruins already bore a charcoal inscription: “A. Lizárraga, 1902.” That was Agustín Lizárraga, a Peruvian farmer from Cusco. He had already done some preliminary clearing work at the site and had told others of its existence. Lizárraga drowned in 1912, just before Machu Picchu became internationally famous.
Bingham’s team cleared the complex of further vegetation and shipped off artifacts—pottery, cutlery, religious objects, and more—to Yale’s Peabody Museum. The museum returned those artifacts to Perú in 2011, 100 years after Bingham’s “discovery” of the site. They are now on display at the Museo Machu Picchu in Cusco.
Recent research indicates that other outside encounters with the ruins preceded even Lizárraga. A map that resurfaced in 1978 indicates that the Peruvian government sold nearby land to one Augusto Berns, who may have been the first non-Peruvian to visit the site, in 1867. The German businessman opened a nearby sawmill and, it is believed, looted some of Machu Picchu’s treasures long before Bingham laid claim to the rest.
Though others had preceded him, Bingham increasingly assumed credit for “discovering” Machu Picchu as his research went on. Media attention helped cement the impression—for instance, an entire 1913 issue of National Geographic was dedicated to his Peruvian expeditions. He did, however, acknowledge Lizárraga and others in passing his 1922 book, Inca Land: Explorations in the Highlands of Peru.
How do I get there?
Most people reach Machu Picchu by way of Aguas Calientes, the closest incorporated town to the ruins and about a four-hour train ride from Cusco. From there, local shuttle buses run to the site. The Peruvian government coordinates tickets and visitation times, offering five walks of varying lengths through the ruins to prevent overcrowding and possible erosion. Others may opt to reach Machu Picchu by hiking the Inca Trail, a series of ancient roads that trace their origin to the Inca Empire.
