The ruins of Machu Picchu are located in Peru.
Machu Picchu is a fifteenth-century Inca citadel in Peru’s Andes, set on a ridge above the Urubamba Valley. Archaeologists generally associate its construction with the reign of Pachacuti, the Inca ruler who transformed the state into a major Andean empire. The site includes terraces, plazas, residences, temples, and carefully fitted stonework.
The Spanish conquest did not record Machu Picchu, and the site appears to have been abandoned or partly depopulated in the sixteenth century. Local people knew of it, but the ruins gained international attention after Hiram Bingham’s 1911 expedition. Bingham was not the first outsider to reach the site, and the idea that he “discovered” it is therefore an oversimplification.
Machu Picchu became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. Its remote setting, engineering, and preservation have made it one of South America’s best-known archaeological landmarks.