Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu (in Quechua means Old Mountain") is the mysterious city of the Incas, built in the middle of the XV century, and the tourist center of Peru. It is located about 100 km from the capital of the Inca Empire Cusco and so secluded and tucked away in the Andes that the Spanish colonizers had not been able to reach it.

This is a powerful energy center of South America, included in the 2007 to the list of the seven new wonders of the world. Machu Picchu is the ancient complex, which consists of a residential area with squares, palaces, temples and an agricultural one with numerous terraces. You can get here by train or on foot through "the path of the Incas".

Machu Picchu surprisingly fits into the landscape, so it is often called "the city in the sky" or "the city in the clouds". Triangular roofs of its buildings seem the part of the landscape. It is an engineering and architectural masterpiece: to build a city builders had to have extensive knowledge of the topography, geology, astronomy and ecology. The natural slopes were used in the construction, and the technique of construction of buildings provided its stability even in the case of the rock slope at 40 * or an earthquake. The process of construction of Machu Picchu was incredible: the stones were transported from remote quarries, get down on the wet clay slopes, dragged through the logs, and then polished so perfectly that even now it’s impossible to stick a knife into the gaps of junctures!

City lasted a little more than 100 years − until 1532, when the Spanish colonialists invaded the empire. The residents of Machu Picchu mysteriously disappeared at this time. According to one version, it was because of Machu Picchu depended on Cusco in food, and when the Spanish conquerors came and stopped the supply of food, the hunger gradually forced the residents to leave the city. According to the other version, 5000 inhabitants of lower-class went to war against the Spaniards and 3,000 of the nobility went to the legendary Vilcabamba and took their treasures with them. But perhaps the reason for their disappearance is something else...

In 2011, the 100th anniversary of the "grand discovery" of Machu Picchu by Yale professor Hiram Bingham was celebrated. After the discovery of the city professor has researched it as far as possible and brought a huge number of artifacts of there to Yale. Since then, Peru was in treaty with USA for the return of the exhibits to its homeland, and in 2010 an agreement was finally reached. In 2011, more than 4,000 artifacts returned to Peru and have been exhibited in a museum in the city of Cusco.

Please note the limit approved by UNESCO in order to preserve the architectural complex of Machu Picchu: not more than 2500 tourists per day may visit it. Book a tour in advance!