Rather it was used for 80 years before being abandoned, seemingly because of the Spanish conquests in other parts of the Inca Empire. Although Machu Picchu is considered to be a 'royal' estate, it would not have been passed down in the line of succession. : xxxvi There is a consensus among archaeologists that Pachacutec ordered the construction of the royal estate for his use as a retreat, most likely after a successful military campaign. Construction appears to date from two great Inca rulers, Pachacutec Inca Yupanqui (1438–1471) and Túpac Inca Yupanqui (1472–1493). However, a 2021 study led by Burger used radiocarbon dating (specifically, AMS) to reveal that Machu Picchu may have been occupied from around 1420–1530 AD. Burger, professor of anthropology at Yale University) to have been built in the 1450s. Photograph of Machu Picchu taken by Hiram Bingham III in 1912 after major clearing and before reconstruction work began The name given to the abandoned settlement by its builders has not been determined by researchers. Evidence of references by native Quechua speakers dating to their reports to the Spanish, early maps, and even discussions with Bingham, is cited in the new research into historical records regarding an apparently arbitrary selection of the name Bingham associated with the site-that differed from the traditional name. The research documents that, starting in 1911, with the publications of American historian and explorer Hiram Bingham, the name Machu Picchu became associated with the ruins. Huayna means 'young' in the Quechua language. Ī study published in 2022 in Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies suggests that, in the Quechua language, the abandoned Inca site was called 'Huayna Picchu', after the smaller peak at the site, or perhaps, just 'Picchu'.

The site is on a narrow saddle between two mountain peaks: Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu. Thus the name of the site is sometimes interpreted as 'old mountain'. In the Quechua language, machu means 'old' or 'old person', while pikchu means either 'portion of coca being crunched' or 'pyramid pointed, multi-sided solid cone'. Due to widespread protests in Peru against President Dina Boluarte and the Congress of Peru, Machu Picchu has been closed to visitors indefinitely since January 2023. In 2007, Machu Picchu was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in a worldwide internet poll. Machu Picchu was declared a Peruvian Historic Sanctuary in 1981 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. By 1976, 30% of Machu Picchu had been restored and restoration continues. Most of the outlying buildings have been reconstructed in order to give visitors a better idea of how they originally appeared. Its three primary structures are the Intihuatana, the Temple of the Sun, and the Room of the Three Windows. Machu Picchu was built in the classical Inca style, with polished dry-stone walls. Historical research published in 2022 claims that the site was probably called Huayna Picchu by the Inca, as it exists on the smaller peak of the same name.

According to the new AMS radiocarbon dating, it was occupied from c. The Incas built the estate around 1450 but abandoned it a century later, at the time of the Spanish conquest. Most recent archaeologists believe that Machu Picchu was constructed as an estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuti (1438–1472). The names of the buildings, their supposed uses, and their inhabitants are all the product of modern archaeologists on the basis of physical evidence, including tombs at the site. The Inca civilization had no written language and no European visited the site until the 19th century, so far as is known, so there are no written records of the site while it was in use. In English, the name is pronounced / ˌ m ɑː tʃ uː ˈ p iː tʃ uː/ or / ˌ m æ tʃ uː ˈ p iː k tʃ uː/, in Spanish as or, and in Quechua ( Machu Pikchu) as. įor most speakers of English or Spanish, the first 'c' in Picchu is silent. The Urubamba River flows past it, cutting through the Cordillera and creating a canyon with a tropical mountain climate. It is located in the Machupicchu District within Urubamba Province above the Sacred Valley, which is 80 kilometers (50 mi) northwest of Cusco. Often referred to as the 'Lost City of the Incas', it is the most familiar icon of the Inca Empire. Machu Picchu is a 15th-century Inca citadel located in the Eastern Cordillera of southern Peru on a 2,430-meter (7,970 ft) mountain ridge.

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