Machu Picchu is a 15th-century Inca stronghold located on a 2,430 m (7,970 ft) mountain ridge in the Eastern Cordillera in

southern Peru. It is located in Machupichu District within Urubamba Province, 80 kilometers (50) above the Sacred Valley. miles)

northwest of Cusco. The Urubamba River flows behind it, cuts through the Cordillera and forms a valley with a tropical mountain climate.

Unlike the Mayans, the Incas had no written language, and no Europeans visited the site until the 19th century, as far as is known.

Therefore, there is no written record of this during the use of the site. The names of the buildings, their approximate uses and their

inhabitants are all the product of modern archaeologists, based on physical evidence including tombs at the site.Recent archaeologists

believe that Machu Picchu was built as an estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuti (1438–1472).Often referred to as the"Lost City of the Incas"

it is the most familiar symbol of the Inca civilization. The Incas built the estate around 1450 but abandoned it at the time of the Spanish

conquest a century later. According to the new AMS radiocarbon dating, it was captured from c. 1420-1532. Historical research published

in 2022 claims that the site was probably called Huayna Picchu by the Inca, because it is located on a smaller peak of the same name.