The mist-shrouded ruins of Machu Picchu capture the imagination.They are the best surviving example of Inca planning and technology, and famous for the way they have been integrated with the spectacular mountain sanctuary that surrounds it.
Machu Picchu has been a sanctuary for both body and spirit, allowing the time and space to sit in contemplation and wonder at the mastery of a people who could create such a place in such harmony with its environment....
To protect these very real and intangible values for all of humanity and future generations, the ruins and the incomparable mountain sanctuary around it were placed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1983 and kept safe...
In July 1999 construction is supposed to begin for a cable car that is reported to be able to carry up to 400 people an hour into the ruins. Carlos Ramirez, Presidentof the Comite de Defense del Santuario Historico de Machupicchu says It will carry them across the Urubamba River. to a hotel complex he described as being 16,000,metres (172,000 square feet) in size.
If reports are true then tourists will have to pass through a complex of souvenir shops, art boutiques, craft galleries and restaurants, in order to enter the ruins.
If the projected maximum of 4000 visitors a day visit the the ruins it would quadruple the current numbers. The ruins would become seriously overcrowded jeopardizing both the physical and intangible qualities of this world heritage treasure.
If this development proceeds--in violation of Peruvian and international law--it would establish a precedent threatening all heritage sites in the world now thought to be protected by laws.
Machu Picchu (Quechua: Machu Pikchu) – "Old Mountain", pronounced [ˈmɑtʃu ˈpixtʃu]) is a pre-Columbian Inca site located 2,430 metres (7,970 ft) above sea level.[1][2] It is situated on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley in Peru, which is 80 kilometres (50 mi) northwest of Cuzco and through which the Urubamba River flows. Most archaeologists believe that Machu Picchu was built as an estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuti (1438–1472). Often referred to as "The Lost City of the Incas", it is perhaps the most familiar icon of the Inca World.
The Incas started building the estate around AD 1400 but it was abandoned as an official site for the Inca rulers a century later at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. Although known locally, it was unknown to the outside world before being brought to international attention in 1911 by the American historian Hiram Bingham. Since then, Machu Picchu has become an important tourist attraction and, since it was not found and plundered by the Spanish after they conquered the Incas, it is important as a cultural site.
Machu Picchu was declared a Peruvian Historical Sanctuary in 1981 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.[2] In 2007, Machu Picchu was voted one the New Seven Wonders of the World in a worldwide Internet poll.
Machu Picchu was built in the classical Inca style, with polished dry-stone walls. Its primary buildings are the Intihuatana, the Temple of the Sun, and the Room of the Three Windows. These are located in what is known by archaeologists as the Sacred District of Machu Picchu. In September 2007, Peru and Yale University reached an agreement regarding the return of artifacts which Hiram Bingham had removed from Machu Picchu in the early twentieth century.