Machu Picchu (from the Quechua Southern Machu Pikchu, "Old Mountain") is the contemporary name given to a llaqta (former Inca Andean village), stone built mainly in the mid-fifteenth century in the rocky promontory that connects the mountains Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu in the eastern foothills of the Central Andes in southern Peru. Its original name would have been Picchu or Picho. According to documents from the mid sixteenth century, Machu Picchu could have been one of the vacation homes of Pachacutec (first Incan emperor, 1438-1470). However, some of its finest buildings and the obvious ceremonial character of the main access road to the llaqta, demonstrate that it was used as a religious sanctuary. Both uses, the palace and the sanctuary, would not have been incompatible. Some experts seem to have ruled, however, a military course, so the popular epithets of "strength" or "citadel" could have been attained. Machu Picchu is considered both a masterpiece of architecture and engineering. Its unique architectural features and landscape, and the veil of mystery that has woven around it much of the literature published on the site, have become one of the most popular tourist destinations on earth. Machu Picchu is on the list of World Heritage of UNESCO since 1983, as part of a whole cultural and ecological well-known under the name historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu. On July 7, 2007 Machu Picchu was declared as one of the new wonders of the world at a ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal, which selected by a hundred million voters in the world.
The first direct references to visitors to the ruins of Machu Picchu indicate that Agustin Lizarraga, a tenant of land Cusco, arrived at the site on July 14, 1902 guiding the Incas and also Gabino Sanchez, Enrique Palma and Justo Ochoa. The visitors left graffiti of their names on one of the walls of the Temple of Three Windows that was later verified by several people. There are reports suggesting that Lopez had already visited Machu Picchu in the company of Luis Bejar in 1894. Lizarraga showed the constructs to the "visitors", although the nature of their activities has not hitherto been investigated. One of the assistants of Hiram Bingham put together one of the greatest niches in the Royal Mausoleum in the cave under the Temple of the Sun. Hiram Bingham, an American history professor interested in finding the last remnants of Vilcabamba, heard about Lizárraga from their contacts with local landowners. It was thus how he arrived at Machu Picchu on July 24, 1911 led by another resident, Melchor Arteaga, accompanied by a sergeant of the Peruvian civil guard named Carrasco. They found two peasant families living there: Recharte and Alvarez, who used the platforms of the south of the ruins for farming and drinking water from an Incan canal that still worked and that brought water from a spring. Paul Recharte, one of the children of Machu Picchu, led Bingham to the "Urban area" covered by weeds. Bingham was very impressed by what he saw and handled the auspices of Yale University, the National Geographic Society and the government Peru to immediately start the scientific study of the site. Thus, the engineer Ellwood Erdis, the osteopath George Eaton, the direct participation of Anacleto Alvarez and Toribio Recharte and a group of anonymous employees of the area, were led by Bingham on archaeological exploration in Machu Picchu from 1912 to 1915. When the weeds were cleared, Incan tombs were excavated on the outskirts of the city. The "public life" of Machu Picchu began in 1913 with the publication of this in an article in the Journal of National Geographic.
