Construction for Machu Picchu began at the height of the Inca Empire around 1450 AD. Most scholars agree the mountaintop city was the royal estate of Pachacutec, the powerful 9th king. Others speculate it was a sacred center where the great political, religious, and economic minds of the Inca Empire gathered. Before the construction of Machu Picchu began, they surveyed the mountaintop site. They built canals to carry freshwater to different sectors of the city. Incredibly, the Inca didn’t use steel or iron tools, nor the wheel, to make the temples, living quarters, and stone steps. Instead, they utilized simple materials such as stone, wood, and bronze. Rows of terraces were also constructed along the mountainsides for support. Without them, Machu Picchu would have tumbled down, unable to withstand centuries existing in a region prone to earthquakes and annual heavy rain. Less than one hundred years after the construction of Machu Picchu began, during the 1530s, the city was abandoned in the aftermath of the Spanish Conquest. Widespread knowledge of the city was lost to official memory over the centuries except for some locals. In 1911, Yale history professor Hiram Bingham chanced upon Machu Picchu while looking for the legendary city of Vilcabamba where resistance rebel leader Manco Inca retreated to safety from Spanish troops. After years of silent existence, Machu Picchu had been rediscovered and was flung into the international spotlight. Today, Machu Picchu is a UNESCO World Heritage Sanctuary and the most visited attraction in Peru. The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism counted 800,200 visitors to Machu Picchu in 2007, when the attraction was named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, and since then that number has nearly doubled. In 2019, the famous Inca ruins were visited by 1,585,300 people from around the world.
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Machu Picchu: Facts, travel information and highlights
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