Machu Picchu Tours & Tickets

Machu Picchu was built around 1450 at the height of the Inca Empire but was abandoned just 100 years later during the Spanish conquest, which is why the Spanish never found it.

The site sits at 2,430 meters (7,970 feet) above sea level on a mountain ridge between the Andes peaks, making it one of the most dramatically positioned archaeological sites in the world.

Machu Picchu was built without a single nail or mortar—the Inca used precisely cut granite stones that fit so tightly together that a knife blade cannot fit between them.

The site was largely unknown to the outside world until American historian Hiram Bingham brought it to international attention in 1911; local Quechua people had always known of its existence.

UNESCO declared Machu Picchu a World Heritage Site in 1983 and it was named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in 2007.

The Inca Trail, a four-day trek to Machu Picchu through cloud forests, passes through over 30 other archaeological sites and remains one of South America's most famous treks.