Machu Picchu, Inca citadel in Urubamba Province, Peru
Machu Picchu stands on a ridge at 2,430 metres, between the peaks of Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu. Its dry-stone walls of irregular grey-brown blocks form stepped terraces, a flat central lawn and roofless rectangular chambers; a long wall with triangular gables and small square openings rises above the lower terraces.
Radiocarbon dating of 26 human remains, published by Richard L. Burger in 2021, places occupation between about 1420 and 1530, earlier than the 1450 date long tied to Pachacuti's reign. Construction is attributed to Pachacuti (1438–1471) and Túpac Inca Yupanqui (1472–1493). The site was abandoned within about 80 years, likely as the Spanish conquest advanced elsewhere.
In Quechua, machu means old and pikchu means peak or summit, so the name is usually translated as old peak. A 2021 study in Ñawpa Pacha argues the Incas likely called the site Huayna Picchu, after the nearby smaller peak, and that the name Machu Picchu spread through Hiram Bingham's 1911 publications.
No road reaches the citadel: the Hiram Bingham road starts at Aguas Calientes, itself reachable only by train (about three hours from Cusco) or helicopter. The Inca Trail approach is a three-day walk beginning at kilometre 82 of the Cusco–Aguas Calientes railway. The built area measures about 530 by 200 metres.
Skeletal studies show most residents were immigrants: genome-wide analyses found Andean, coastal, Ecuadorian and Amazonian ancestries buried together, and bone damage from water parasites of different regions indicates varied long-term diets. About 750 people lived there, most of them yanaconas support staff, reduced to a few hundred servants in winter.
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