Machu Picchu is a fifteenth century Inca citadel built on a mountain ridge in the Eastern Cordillera of southern Peru, at an elevation of about 2,430 meters. It lies in the Machupicchu District of Urubamba Province, roughly 80 kilometers northwest of Cusco, above the Sacred Valley, where the Urubamba River cuts a deep canyon through a subtropical mountain climate. Its dry stone construction, terraced into the mountainside, has made it one of the most widely recognized surviving examples of Inca architecture.
Cross-Tradition Connections
In Style
The 15th-century Inca royal estate, the canonical example of Inca architecture and stonemasonry.
Uses Element
Built from granite blocks quarried on site and shaped with such precision that many walls need no mortar.
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