Machu Picchu is an Incan city in what country?

Machu Picchu is an Incan city in Peru. The citadel stands high in the Andes of southern Peru, about 80 kilometers northwest of Cusco, above the Urubamba Valley. Its stone terraces, temples, plazas, and carefully engineered water channels were built around the 15th century, probably during the reign of the Inca ruler Pachacuti.

Machu Picchu was not the capital of the Inca Empire; that was Cusco. Historians commonly interpret it as a royal estate or ceremonial and religious center, although no surviving Inca written record definitively explains its original purpose. The site was probably abandoned during the period of the Spanish conquest, but the Spanish did not record discovering it.

The phrase “Lost City of the Incas” is a popular nickname, but it can mislead: local people knew of the ruins, and the site was not literally unknown. American historian Hiram Bingham brought it to international attention in 1911. Machu Picchu became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 and remains one of Peru’s most recognizable cultural landmarks.