The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology

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Machu Picchu, Peru

Machu Picchu, Peru [Si].
Small Inca centre perched high on a rocky ridge between two peaks at an elevation of 2340m above sea level overlooking a loop of the River Urubamba. The so-called lost city of the Incas (Vilcabamba), Machu Picchu was rediscovered in 1911 by Hiram Bingham, Professor of Archaeology at Yale University.

Defended by a stone wall, Machu Picchu has only one entrance. A stair leads up the hill to the site, and roadways connect it to Cuzco. The construction of the temples and other buildings involved creating level platforms on the hilltop. A sequence of small plazas lies along the ridge, the steep flanking slopes being terraced for houses and cultivation. One of the most extraordinary buildings is a circular astronomical observatory. Houses were rectangular in plan, high gabled, with thatch roofs and trapezoidal doors.

A programme of radiocarbon dating carried out in the late 1980s suggests two main phases to the site: the...

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