Which ancient civilization built Machu Picchu?

The Inca civilization built Machu Picchu in the fifteenth century in the Andes of present-day Peru.

The site stands about 2,430 metres above sea level on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley. Archaeologists generally associate its construction with the reign of Pachacuti, the Inca ruler who expanded the empire during the fifteenth century. Machu Picchu includes terraces, plazas, temples, residences, and carefully fitted stone walls.

The Spanish conquest did not record the site in the same way as major Inca centres, and Machu Picchu was largely unknown outside the local region until Hiram Bingham publicized it internationally in 1911. It was probably a royal estate or ceremonial and administrative complex, rather than a fortress or lost city in the simplistic popular sense. The Maya and Aztec civilizations developed in Mesoamerica, far north of the Inca heartland.