Where Is Machu Picchu?
Where is the lost city of the Incas?
Machu Picchu is an ancient Inca city located on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley in Peru, South America. It is situated at 2,430 meters above the sea-level. It is also known as the lost city of Incas.
The Incas started building the city around 1450 AD. The Inca Empire was at its zenith then. The city was abandoned just after a century; probably the city dwellers died of small pox. There are numerous theories to explain why the Incas built the city: some historians say that Machu Picchu functioned as an estate for the Inca emperor, while others argue it was used as a prison to keep the most heinous of criminals. There are still others who cite religious reasons, or for Inca gods or as an agricultural laboratory etc. It is one of those places which were not plundered by the Spanish during their conquest of the Americas. It is still not known with certainty why the Spanish didn’t come to the city. It sounds strange when one reads that the city is merely 80 kilometers from the former Inca capital of Cusco. Over the centuries, a forest grew around the city cutting it from the outside world.
The city was virtually unknown to the outside world until the early 20th century when an American historian, Hiram Bingham, rediscovered it in 1911. He made several trips and conducted excavations. He also carried off some artifacts back to the United States. Those artifacts were taken to the US for a certain period of time but they were never returned. This is a cause of occasional dust up between the two governments. More than 50,000 tourists come to see the city every year and UNESCO declared Machu Picchu a World Heritage Site in 1983.
Category: Geography
How come it’s becoming popular nowadays? I just heard this name in the film ‘Beastly’ and also it was chosen as the 7 best places in the world to see in the local television in Indonesia.