Machu Picchu is in Peru.
The celebrated Inca citadel stands in southern Peru's Eastern Cordillera, about 80 kilometres northwest of Cusco. It sits at roughly 2,430 metres above sea level on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba River, within Peru's historic sanctuary of the same name.
Most archaeologists date its construction and occupation to the 15th century, during the reign of the Inca ruler Pachacuti. The complex includes finely fitted dry-stone buildings such as the Temple of the Sun, the Temple of the Three Windows, and the Intihuatana ritual stone. It was probably abandoned during the period of the Spanish conquest.
Machu Picchu was known locally before it gained international attention through Hiram Bingham's 1911 expedition; Agustín Lizárraga had reached the site earlier. It is sometimes called the “Lost City of the Incas,” but that nickname can mislead: local communities knew of it, and the ruins are a citadel or royal estate rather than a lost modern city. UNESCO designated it a World Heritage Site in 1983.