Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu is a 15th-century Inca citadel on a ridge above the Urubamba valley in Peru, north-west of Cusco and about 2,430 m above sea level. Entry is by timed ticket on a set circuit, and the site suits travellers who can manage steep stone steps and give it a full day from Cusco.

Machu Picchu sits on a saddle between two peaks in the Eastern Cordillera, about 80 kilometres northwest of Cusco, with the Urubamba River looping around it far below. It is believed to have been built around 1450 as a royal estate for Pachacuti, the ruler who turned the Inca state into an empire. A radiocarbon study led by Richard Burger and published in 2021 suggests people lived there from about 1420 to 1530.

The site was abandoned around the time of the Spanish conquest and stayed overgrown and little known for centuries. Local farmers knew of it, and the farmer Agustín Lizárraga wrote his name and the year 1902 in charcoal in the Temple of the Three Windows. Hiram Bingham of Yale University reached it in 1911 and brought it to international attention; artefacts he took to Yale were returned to Peru in batches, the last in 2012. UNESCO listed the Historic Sanctuary in 1983.

The citadel is divided into an agricultural sector of terraces on the south side and an urban sector of about 200 buildings. The best stonework, cut so precisely that the blocks fit without mortar, appears in the religious buildings. The Temple of the Sun, or Torreón, is a curved tower built on the rock above a cave that Bingham called the Royal Mausoleum. The Temple of the Three Windows and the Main Temple face the Sacred Plaza.

Above the plaza, the Intihuatana is a carved ritual stone that casts its longest shadow at the June solstice. In the lower part of the site, the Temple of the Condor uses natural rock to suggest the bird's outstretched wings. Huayna Picchu rises steeply at the north end and Machu Picchu Mountain at the south, both reached on separate trails. Llamas graze on the terraces, and the Inca Trail arrives through the Sun Gate high on the southeast slope.

Entry tickets are sold only by Peru's Ministry of Culture for a specific circuit and hourly slot, and the name and passport on the ticket must match. Book weeks ahead for the dry season from May to September, when demand peaks. Early slots often start in cloud that lifts by mid-morning, and afternoon slots are quieter. Plan for two to three hours on a circuit, and add half a day if you also climb one of the mountains.

No road connects Cusco with Machu Picchu. Travellers drive or take a transfer to Ollantaytambo, about two hours, then ride PeruRail or Inca Rail to Aguas Calientes; trains also leave from Poroy and San Pedro near Cusco. From Aguas Calientes, Consettur buses climb to the gate in about 25 minutes, and the walk up takes roughly 90. The Inca Trail closes every February for maintenance.

For 2026 Peru's Ministry of Culture set the daily cap at 5,600 visitors on high-season dates (1 January, 2 to 5 April, 19 June to 2 November and 30 to 31 December) and 4,500 on other days. Tickets are split into three circuits. Circuit 1 (Panoramic) covers the Upper Terraces, with the Intipunku and Inca Bridge routes added in high season; Circuit 2 (Classic) follows the Main Designed and Lower Terrace routes; Circuit 3 (Royalty) includes a Huchuy Picchu route that opens only in high season. Children under 3 enter free.