Peru - PE - PER - PER - South America

Chinchero was the location of a large Incan town. Along the edge of the town, the Inca built large terraces to allow them to safely plant crops on the mountain slopes.

Archaeologists think Machu Picchu was built as an estate for Inca Emperor Pachacuti, who reigned from 1438 to 1472. His statue dominates a square in Aguas Calientes.

Machu Picchu (meaning “Old Mountain” in Quechua) in the foreground and Huayna Picchu (meaning “Young Mountain”) on the right are both mountains in Peru that rise above Machu Picchu, the city of the Incas. The Incas built a trail up the side of Huayna Picchu and temples and terraces at its top. Huayna Picchu is 2,693 m (8,835ft) high, making it approximately 260 m (850 ft) taller than Machu Picchu.

The Incas built temples and terrances at the top of Huayna Picchu, approximately 2,720 m (8,920 ft) above sea level.

Located high in the Andes, and not rediscovered until the early part of the 20th century, the spectacular Inca ruins of Machu Picchu are one of the showpieces of South America.

Machu Picchu has been declared a World Heritage Site and was named one of the "New" Seven Wonders of the World in 2007. The site is situated roughly 2,430 m (7,970 ft) above sea level.

Many of the former housing units of the city of Machu Picchu are visible in the foreground of this image.

Houses near the Sacred Plaza of Machu Picchu, approximately 2,430 m (7,970 ft) above sea level.

A section of housing is seen in front of Machu Picchu's Sacred Plaza, with the Intiwatana (Hitching Post of the Sun) above the plaza and the Western Urban Section to its right, where llamas roam.

The Intiwatana at Machu Picchu is a notable ritual stone that has been described as an astronomic clock, a type of sundial, or a calendar of the Inca. The Inca believed the stone held the sun in its place along its annual path in the sky. The stone aligns with the sun's position during the winter solstice (June 21), casting its longest shadow on its southern side. At midday on the equinoxes the sun stands almost above the pillar, casting no shadow at all. In Quechua, "inti" is the name of "the sun" and "wata-" is a verb root meaning "to tie or hitch (up)." The "-na" suffix indicates a tool or place. Hence inti-wata-na is literally an instrument or place to "tie up the sun," often colorfully conveyed as "The Hitching Post of the Sun."

Wall with trapezoidal windows in Machu Picchu.

The Temple of the Sun or Torreon at Machu Picchu.

The quipu is a system of knotted cords the Incas and their predecessors in the Andean region used for accounting and storing massive amounts of data important to their civilizations. The Inca Empire was centered in what is today southern Peru and important members of their society were the Quipucamayocs (literally "quipu specialists") who could interpret the quipus. Approximately 1,000 quipus survive in museums and private collections around the world. Their accounting (numerical) function has been deciphered; work continues on clarifying their literary function.

Located in the heart of Lima,this archeological site is one of several Pre-Columbian structures built in Lima's earliest days by members of the indigenous Pre-Incan Lima Culture . Composed entirely of clay and adobe, Huaca Pucllana served as a ceremonial and administrative center between A.D. 200 and 700.

Built on the site of an Incan shrine, the baroque-style Basilica Metropolitan Cathedral of Lima was finished in its current form in the late 1700s. The cathedral was also home to the archbishop of Lima and houses a museum of church history. Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizzaro's remains are on display in a coffin in a glass sarcophagus.

The Basilica Metropolitan Cathedral of Lima located on the Plaza Mayor in downtown Lima. Construction on the cathedral, which is dedicated to the apostle Saint John the Evangelist, began in 1535; the structure has undergone many expansions and transformations over the ensuing centuries.

Adjacent to the Plaza Mayor de Lima sits the ornate Governor's Palace, also known as the House of Pizzaro, who founded Lima as his capital in 1535. The palace is currently the official residence of the Peruvian President and the seat of government.

The Government Palace (Palacio de Gobierno), located on Lima's main square (Plaza Mayor), is the seat of the executive branch of the Peruvian Government and the official residence of the president. A number of ceremonial guard units of the Peruvian military are stationed at the Palace, and participate in daily changing-of-the-guard and flag raising/lowering activities.

The Sacred Valley of the Inca in the Andes is also known as the Urubamba Valley after the river that meanders through it. The Sacred Valley begins about 20 km (12 mi) north of the Inca capital of Cusco.

Salineras de Maras in the Sacred Valley is the site of ancient salt pans, first developed by the Wari culture and subsequently by the Inca. Today, there are more than 5,000 salt pans near Maras, almost all less than 4 sq m (43 sq ft) in size and no more than about 30 cm (1 ft) deep. Each pan is owned and mined by a local family of the Salineras community. The salt is collected and sold in local shops or in nearby towns. Although the salt pans are man-made, the water that is channeled through them comes from a subterranean natural brine spring that bubbles up near the small town.

This huge series of concentric terraces in Moray (just west of the salt pans of Maras) may well have served as an ancient agricultural research station. The distance from the highest to lowest ring is 150 m (490 ft), which allowed the Wari and later the Inca peoples to experiment with growing crops at different altitudes and exposure to the sun. The circular bottom is so well drained that it never completely floods, no matter how hard the rain.

Central wall of the huge two-story Inca Temple of Viracocha at Raqchi; the remains are some 100 m long and 14 m high. The original building consisted of a central adobe wall some 18 to 20 meters in height with a cut stone foundation base. Windows and doors allowed passage from one side to the other. The central wall was flanked on either side by a row of eleven columns. The foundations for both the wall and the columns were constructed of classic high Inca stonework with the remaining height built of adobe. (The 4 m height of the wall foundation survives, but most of the column heights have been reduced.) Prior to its destruction by the Spaniards, the temple had what was likely the largest single gable roof in the Incan Empire, with its peak at the central wall and stretching out over the columns on each side. The site is at 3,480 m above sea level and 110 km from Cusco.

Part of the facade of the Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús (Church of the Society of Jesus) in Cusco's Plaza de Armas, the city center. Built atop an Inca palace, it is one of the best examples of Spanish Baroque architecture in Peru and its design greatly influenced the development of Baroque architecture in the South Andes. Begun in 1576, the church was badly damaged in an earthquake in 1650; its rebuilding was completed in 1673.

The Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus (Church of the Society of Jesus) on the Plaza de Armas (Parade Square) in Cusco. The historic Jesuit church is built on the site of an Inca palace and is one of the best examples of Spanish Baroque architecture in Peru. Its construction began in 1576, but the structure was badly damaged in an earthquake in 1650. Rebuilding of the church was completed in 1668.

Ancient Andean civilizations are well known for their monumental architecture, which reached its height in the Inca Empire of the 15th and 16th centuries. The photo shows a close up of a typical Inca wall in Cusco (the Incan capital city) constructed without mortar and with no spaces between the enormous blocks of stone. Exactly how the blocks were fitted remains unclear, but we know they were constructed by human ingenuity - not ancient aliens!

The Gothic-Renaissance style Cusco Cathedral was built in the 1500s in Cusco’s main square on the site of an Incan temple; it is today part of the World Heritage Zone of Cusco. The church's official name is the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption of the Virgin.

The famous 12-sided stone sits in the center of an Incan-era wall in the heart of Cusco. The joints are so tight, it is impossible to insert anything between the stones.

The Jardin Sagrado (Sacred Garden) in Cusco repurposed Incan stones to construct a convent and garden. The garden features native plants and Incan sculptures and terraces.

Lake Titicaca on the Peru-Bolivia border is the highest navigable lake in the world at 3,805 m. The lake has floating islands made from totora reed layers that are replenished constantly.

Chinchero was the location of a large Incan town. Along the edge of the town, the Inca built large terraces to allow them to safely plant crops on the mountain slopes.