Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu "Old Peak", one of the Seven Wonders of the World is located 2,430 Metres (7,970 feet) above sea level in Peru which is in South America. It is situated on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley, which is 80 Kilometres (50 miles) northwest of Cuzco and through which the Urubamba River flows.

Machu Picchu was built around 1450, at the height of the Inca Empire. It was abandoned just over 100 years later, in 1572. On 24 July 1911, Hiram Bingham who was an American historian employed as a lecturer at Yale University discovered Machu Picchu while he was searching for the city of Vilcabamba. Some Quechuas lived in the original structures at Machu Picchu while Bingham approached the place with the help of Quechuas 11 year-old boy Pablito Alvarez. In 1981 Peru declared an area of 325.92 square kilometers surrounding Machu Picchu as a "Historical Sanctuary".

In 1983 UNESCO designated Machu Picchu a World Heritage Site, describing it as "an absolute masterpiece of architecture and a unique testimony to the Inca civilization". The World Monuments Fund placed Machu Picchu on its 2008 Watch List of the 100 Most Endangered Sites in the world because of environmental degradation.

In January 2010, heavy rain caused flooding which buried or washed away roads and railways leading to Machu Picchu, trapping more than 2,000 locals and over 2,000 tourists, who were taken out by airlift. Machu Picchu was temporarily closed, but it reopened on 1 April 2010.