The ancient site of Machu Picchu is in Peru.
Machu Picchu is a 15th-century Inca citadel in the Andes Mountains, above the Urubamba Valley in southern Peru. It was built during the reign of the Inca ruler Pachacuti, who ruled in the 15th century, and its terraces, plazas and stone buildings show the engineering skill of the Inca civilization.
The site was probably abandoned during the Spanish conquest, although the Spanish did not record or destroy it in the way they did many other important Inca centers. Local communities continued to know the area, and the site became internationally famous after Hiram Bingham's 1911 expedition brought it to wider scholarly attention.
Machu Picchu is not the Inca capital; that was Cusco, farther southeast. The site became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 and is also one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, selected in a 2007 global poll.