History of Machu Picchu

History of Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu is located in southern Peru, in the department of Cusco, 112.5 kilometers northwest of the city of Cusco. At an altitude of 2,350 m.a.s.l., it belongs to the district of the same name in the province of Urubamba. The nearest major city is Cusco, today the regional capital and once the capital of the Inca Empire. Around Machu Picchu, on its left bank, lies the Urubamba Canyon, formerly known as the Picchu Gorge, and at the foot of the mountains, almost surrounding them, flows the Vilcanota–Urubamba River.

The ruins themselves lie within a protected area of Peru’s National System of Natural Protected Areas (SINANPE) known as the Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu, which covers 32,592 hectares (80,535 acres or 325.92 km²) of the Vilcanota–Urubamba River basin (the Willkamayu or “sacred river” of the Incas). The sanctuary protects a number of endangered species, such as orchids, as well as several Inca sites, of which Machu Picchu is considered the most important.