Machu Picchu

Where it is

Machu Picchu occupies a ridge between two peaks about 2,430 metres above sea level, roughly 1,000 metres above the Urubamba river which loops around it on three sides. It sits on the eastern flank of the Andes where the mountains fall toward the Amazon basin, so the climate is wetter and warmer than Cusco's — cloud forest rather than high grassland. The site is steep, seismically active and extremely wet, which makes what was built there more impressive rather than less.

The land and water around it

• The Urubamba valleyriver

  A deep gorge cutting from the highlands toward the Amazon, looping around the ridge on three sides. The river is a thousand metres below the site.

• Huayna Picchumountains

  The peak at the northern end of the ridge, with terracing and structures near its summit — building at the least convenient point available.

• The cloud forestforest

  Wet montane forest on the eastern Andean slope. High rainfall on steep terrain is the site's central engineering problem.

Its history, in short

Built in the fifteenth century, most likely as an estate associated with the ruler Pachacuti, it was occupied for perhaps a century before being left around the time of the Spanish conquest. It was never found by the Spanish, which is why it survives without a colonial church built on top of it — the fate of most Inca sites. It was known to local families farming there when Hiram Bingham's expedition publicised it in 1911. Objects removed to Yale were the subject of a long dispute and were returned to Peru from 2011.

Timeline

Dates are shown on a timeline rather than as changing shapes on the map. The globe draws modern boundaries only, and tinting a modern outline to stand for a historical one would state something we cannot source.

Places that carry meaning

• The terraces15th century

  Agricultural terracing on very steep ground, built in layers — coarse stone, gravel, then soil — so that heavy rain drains through rather than washing the terrace away. Most of the engineering here is underground.

• The Intihuatana15th century

  A carved stone outcrop whose alignments have been read as astronomical. Specific claims about what it measured are interpretations, some better supported than others.

  Astronomical interpretations of the Intihuatana range from well-argued alignment studies to speculation. There is no Inca text to check them against.

Learn the language here

1. 1Understand which languages are spoken hereMachu Picchu is multilingual. Start with which languages are used, by whom, and for what — the phrase list only covers one of them.Written by Globe Quest

Check yourself

• What is the main engineering achievement of the terracing?

  Layered drainage beneath, so heavy rain passes through rather than washing it away

  Coarse stone, gravel and soil in layers. Most of the work is invisible, which is usually where the work is.

• What did the 1911 expedition actually do?

  Publicised internationally a site local families were farming

  It was known locally throughout. 'Discovery' names the publication, not the knowledge.

Worth arguing about

• Machu Picchu survived because the Spanish never found it. How much of what we take as typical of a period is really just what survived?
• Objects taken in 1911 were returned a century later after a dispute. What should the default be?

Related places