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Machu Picchu
★ UNESCO
World Heritage
Machu Picchu

📷 LoggaWiggler · Pixabay

Where in the world

Peru

Machu Picchu

Inca · Peru

Field notes

civilizations
Inca
types
City
built
1,450 CE
occupied
1,450 CE — 1,572 CE
visitors
950,000 / year
country
Peru

The site

Machu Picchu is a fifteenth-century Inca citadel perched on a mountain ridge at 2,430 meters in southern Peru, above the Urubamba River canyon. Built in classical Inca style with finely fitted dry-stone walls, it holds landmarks such as the Temple of the Sun, the Temple of the Three Windows, and the Intihuatana ritual stone. Often called the "Lost City of the Incas," it is believed to have served as an estate for the emperor Pachacuti before its abandonment about a century later. It remains one of the most iconic sites in the Americas.

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