Who commissioned Machu Picchu during the Inca Empire?

Pachacuti commissioned Machu Picchu during the expansion of the Inca Empire.

Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui ruled from approximately 1438 until 1471 and transformed the Kingdom of Cusco into an expanding imperial state. Machu Picchu was built in the fifteenth century in the Andes of present-day Peru, probably as a royal estate or retreat associated with Pachacuti.

The site contains temples, terraces, residences, plazas, and carefully fitted stonework. Its builders adapted the complex to a steep mountain setting above the Urubamba River. The Incas used sophisticated agricultural terraces and drainage systems to manage heavy rainfall and unstable slopes.

Machu Picchu was not known to Spanish conquerors as a major imperial capital, and it was gradually abandoned or neglected after the Spanish conquest. Hiram Bingham brought international attention to it in 1911, although local people already knew the site. The name Pachacuti is therefore linked to the site’s construction, not to its modern rediscovery.