Picchu

Machu Picchu rises on a narrow mountain saddle above a great bend of the Urubamba River. The Inca builders fitted terraces, temples, residences and fountains into a steep landscape of granite and forest. A network of paths linked the settlement to other sites in the surrounding mountains, where high Andean peaks give way to the humid eastern slopes.

Built in the fifteenth century, Machu Picchu is commonly understood as an estate associated with the Inca ruler Pachacuti. Its finely worked stone buildings and sacred places served a community of elite occupants and attendants, while terraces supported cultivation on the mountainside. The settlement’s occupation was relatively short, and it was largely abandoned around the time of the Spanish conquest. Its buildings remained among the forests and steep ridges above the river.