Machu Picchu facts for kids
Machu Picchu in June 2009
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 Location in Peru
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| Location |  PeruCusco Region |
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| Coordinates | 13°09′48″S 72°32′44″W / 13.16333°S 72.54556°W |
| Height | 2,430 metres (7,970 ft) |
| History | |
| Founded | c. 1450 |
| Abandoned | 1572 |
| Cultures | Inca civilization |
| Site notes | |
| Archaeologists | Hiram Bingham |
| Official name | Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu |
| Type | Mixed |
| Criteria | i, iii, vii, ix |
| Designated | 1983 (7th session) |
| Reference no. | 274 |
| State Party | Peru |
| Region | Latin America and the Caribbean |
Machu Picchu is a pre-Columbian 15th-century Inca site in Peru, in South America.
The Incas built the city on a mountain ridge, 2430m above sea level. They lived there between 1200 and 1450 AD. Other people lived there before about 650 AD.
The Incas built houses, fields and temples by cutting the rock on the mountain so it was flat. They built an Observatory to look at the stars.
When the Spanish invaded Peru, the Incas left Machu Picchu. Nobody knows for sure why they did that, but some think it was because of diseases from Europe. The city was left unfinished, most likely due to the Spanish invasion and/or a civil war between the ruling rival Inca brothers named Huascar and Atahualpa. The Spanish never found Machu Picchu or the lost city during their occupation.
Machu Picchu is very difficult to get to because it is so high in the mountains. It has only one way in and a stone wall to protect it. Most people on Earth did not know it was there until a Yale graduate named Hiram Bingham rediscovered it in 1911. He heard rumours of a hidden city which was already known to the native Peruvians, who guided him there. He led a restoration project that was partly funded by the National Geographic Society. Bingham made a deal with the government to take artifacts to the Peabody Museum for study. Peru is still trying to have those artifacts returned to them.
Machu Picchu was built in the classical Inca style, with polished dry-stone walls. Its three primary structures are the Intihuatana, the Temple of the Sun, and the Room of the Three Windows. Most of the outlying buildings have been reconstructed in order to give tourists a better idea of how they originally appeared. By 1976, 30% of Machu Picchu had been restored and restoration continues.
Machu Picchu was declared a Peruvian Historical Sanctuary in 1981 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. In 2007, Machu Picchu was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in a worldwide Internet poll.
Today, there is a new road so that tourists can visit. People can also walk along the Inca Trail, or take a train from Cusco.
Images for kids
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Photograph of Machu Picchu taken by Hiram Bingham III in 1912 after major clearing and before reconstruction work began
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Melchor Arteaga crossing the Urubamba River on 24 July 1911
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Sergeant Carrasco at Machu Picchu on 24 July 1911
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Hiram Bingham III at his tent door near Machu Picchu in 1912
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Map of Machu Picchu
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Terraced fields in the upper agricultural sector
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Room of the Three Windows
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Intihuatana is believed to have been designed as an astronomic clock or calendar by the Incas
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The sculpture projecting from the rock bottom of the sun temple is interpreted as "Water mirrors for observing the sky".
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View of the residential section of Machu Picchu
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Interior of an Inca building, featuring trapezoidal windows
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Funerary Stone in upper cemetery
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Artifact collected on Bingham's 1912 expedition, on display at the Museo Machu Picchu
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Artifact collected on Bingham's 1912 expedition, on display at the Museo Machu Picchu
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Silver tupus collected on Bingham's 1912 expedition, on display at the Museo Machu Picchu
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Panoramic view of Machu Picchu from Huayna Picchu
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Panoramic view of Machu Picchu
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See also
In Spanish: Machu Picchu para niños
