Machu Picchu - Simple English Wikipedia

# Machu Picchu

### From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.

Machu Picchu, Peru

Machu Picchu was a Inca town in Peru in South America.

The Incas built Machu Picchu on a mountain ridge, 2340m above sea level. They lived there between 1200 and 1450 AD. Other people lived there before though, around 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. Nobody knows why they did that, but some think it was caused fear of the Spanish.

Today, Machu Picchu is very difficult to get to because it is so high in the mountains. It has only one way in and a stone wall to protect it. Nobody knew it existed until a man called Hiram Bingham found it in 1911.

Today, there is a new road so that tourists can visit. People can also walk along the Inca Trail, or take a train from Cusco.

## [edit] External Links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Machu Picchu

- QuickTime Virtual Tour of Machu Picchu and Peru from destination360.com.
- Machu Picchu on National Geographic
- Machu Picchu on Google Maps.
- Machu Picchu travel guide.

Retrieved from "http://simple.wikipedia.org../../../m/a/c/Machu_Picchu_a695.html"

Categories: History | Peru

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