Machu Picchu
Ancient site
A city of the Incas, hidden high in the Andes.
Machu Picchu lies on a mountain ridge in Peru, 2,430 metres above the sea. The Incas built it around 1450, probably as a palace for their emperor.
About a hundred years later it was abandoned. The Spanish conquerors never found it, and the outside world only heard of it in 1911.
- above sea level
- 2,430 m
- built
- c. 1450
- known to the world
- 1911
- 1
The stones fit together so tightly, without any mortar, that a knife will not go between them.
- 2
The walls can take an earthquake: the stones shake and then settle back into place.
- 3
Llamas still graze among the ruins.
Question 1 of 2
Who built Machu Picchu?
- Nazca LinesGiant drawings in the desert that you can only see from the air.
- Lake TiticacaA lake as big as a small sea, high in the Andes.
- Salar de UyuniThe largest salt flat in the world, and after rain the largest mirror.
- Atacama DesertThe driest desert in the world outside the poles, between the Andes and the ocean.
It is in Peru.
Read about Peru