Machu Picchu is a city of ancient America, located in the territory of modern Peru, on the top of a mountain range at an altitude of 2,450 meters above sea level, dominating the valley of the Urubamba River. In 2007 he was awarded the title of the New World Wonder.
Machu Picchu is also often called the "city in heaven" or "city among the clouds", sometimes called the "lost city of the Incas". Some archaeologists believe that this city was created as a sacred mountain shelter by the great Inca ruler Pachacutec a century before the conquest of his empire, that is, around 1440, and functioned until 1532, when the Spaniards invaded the territory of the Inca empire. In 1532 all its inhabitants mysteriously disappeared. Similar to Machu Picchu, the high-altitude town of Choquiqurao lasted much longer, until the 1570s.