Machu Picchu

The lost city of the Incas in the clouds

Machu Picchu is an Inca city built on a mountain top 2,430 metres high. The Spanish conquerors never found it, so it survived intact! It hid in the jungle for 400 years until it was discovered in 1911. The Incas cut the stones so precisely that not even a knife blade fits between them — and they used no mortar!

Machu Picchu (c. 1450) was a mountain estate for the Inca ruler Pachacuti, in the Peruvian Andes at 2,430 m. It has 200 structures: temples, the Temple of the Sun, the Intihuatana ('hitching post of the sun' — an astronomical instrument), terraces (for farming and against erosion) and a complex drainage system (handling 2,000 mm of rain a year). The stones are laid without mortar in 'ashlar' style — in an earthquake they 'dance' and settle back into place. About 750 people lived there; it was abandoned in 1572 and the Spanish never found it. In 1911 Hiram Bingham 'rediscovered' it with help from local farmers. A UNESCO site (1983) and one of the New Seven Wonders; visitors are capped at 4,500 a day.

Fun facts

• The Incas hauled 50-tonne stones up the mountain without wheels or iron tools.
• In earthquakes the stones 'dance' and settle back — that's why the city has stood for 600 years.
• You can still only reach the city on foot or by train — there's no road.