Machu Picchu is well known as one of the most famous and impressive of the world's historical sites. It has recently been listed as one of the new world's seven wonders and it has been a UNESC World Heritag Site since 1983. There is such good tourism infrastructure in place around the site and the surrounding area of Peru, that Machu Picchu luxury tours help you to see the location in true style.
No visit to Peru would be complete without a trip to see Machu Picchu - it is one of the largest, most impressive and best preserved of all the Inca buildings and sites that have been discovered. The stone work for which the Incas were so famous is well preserved here and it is incredible to see their engineering feats too. When you couple the design of the location with the actual geography of the site you are likely to be blown away.
The site of the citadel is 2430 meters above sea level set amid other jungle covered mountains all around it.
There are many theories about why the city in the cloud forest was constructed, but no one knows exactly what it was built for. It is known that the Spanish never visited the site and they most likely never even knew that it existed. Most historians now seem to agree that the site was built for the Inca Pachacuti as a summer estate and sacred religious sanctuary.
Many historians believe that Pachacuti ordered the site to be built as a royal estate and religious retreat. It is thought that the site was deserted around the time of the Spanish conquest and was never fully completed. It is likely that the site was eventually abandoned because a war of succession between potential Incas emptied the royal coffers.
For several centuries the site was lost, taken over by the cloud forest, and forgotten to all but a handful of local people. In 1911 Hiram Bingham, a Yale based historian and adventurer led an expedition into the jungle and rediscovered the site. From there he introduced the incredible Incan ruins to the rest of the world and spent many years restoring the site and claiming back from the encroaching forest.
Today Machu Picchu is visited by hundreds of thousands of people each year who come to marvel at its location and construction. There are a few different choices available to you when visiting - you can hike the Inca trail and spend up to five days hiking along the old roads used 600 years ago, you can arrive by train to Aguas Calientes or you can choose to stay in accommodation close to the site.
A Machu Picchu luxury tour will help you to get the very best from your visit and enjoy every single moment of your memorable trip. Find out more about visiting this must see Latin American pre-Columbian marvel today.
Machu Picchu, Peru, Cusco Luxury Travel Tips