Peru, the Incas: Machu Picchu, Full Documentary - National Geographic - Machu Picchu Decoded

Machu Picchu is a pre-Columbian 15th-century Inca site, Peru

Machu Picchu is a pre-Columbian 15th-century Inca site in Peru, in South America.

The Incas built the city on a mountain ridge, 2430m above sea level. They lived there between 1200 and 1450 AD. Other people lived there before about 650 AD.

The Incas built houses, fields and temples by cutting the rock on the mountain so it was flat. They built an observatory to look at the stars.

When the Spanish invaded Peru, the Incas left Machu Picchu.The city was left unfinished, most likely due to the Spanish invasion, or due to civil war between the ruling rival Inca brothers named Huascar and Atahualpa. The Spanish never found Machu Picchu or the lost city during their occupation.

Credits: Wikipedia

"Deep in the Andean mountains lays a mysterious ruin named Machu Picchu. For 400 years it sat abandoned on its misty cliff, the quintessential lost city in the jungle. Rediscovered in 1911, it contained no written records or carvings, nothing that could shed light on its history. For a century since, it has defied the endless scores of visitors and scientists who attempted to understand its purpose. Who were the mysterious people who built it and why did they build it here? Today an international team of archeologists, engineers and scientists are finally piecing together the clues. Together they are discovering astonishing new burials, revealing the intricacies of its ingenious engineering and finally decoding the secrets of Machu Picchu."