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Who lived at Machu Picchu at its height? A new study, published in Science Advances, used ancient DNA to find out for the first time where workers buried more than 500 years ago came from within the lost Inca Empire.Researchers, including Jason Nesbitt, associate professor of archaeology at Tulane University School of Liberal Arts, performed genetic testing on individuals buried at Machu Picchu in order to learn more about the people who lived and worked there...It was once part of a royal estate of the Inca Empire.Like other royal estates, Machu Picchu was home not only to royalty and other...

Transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney has revealed she is currently in Peru after leaving the US because she no longer “feels safe” amid the transphobic backlash over her partnership with Bud Light. The 26-year-old TikTok influencer was seen at Machu Picchu in her 10 July TikTok video. “Hello from Peru,” she wrote. In the video, Mulvaney revealed that she is “solo travelling” in South America to “feel something,” before admitting that although it was disheartening to leave her home, she does not currently feel safe in the US. “I feel very safe here. It’s a little sad that I had to...

Archaeologists from the Decentralized Culture Directorate in Cusco (DDC Cusco) have discovered samples of cave art in a sector of the Qhapaq Ñan or Great Inca Trail that crosses the Archaeological Park of Machu Picchu in Peru.This information was provided by Francisco Huarcaya, the person responsible for the sector of the Inca Trail that crosses the aforementioned park.Huarcaya reported that said discovery occurred in early September this year at the 87th kilometer of the railway that leads to the Inca citadel, on the left side of the Vilcanota River.Said samples consist of a set of images painted on different parts...

<p>The ancient Incan city we know as 'Machu Picchu' should probably be called 'Picchu' or 'Huayna Picchu', according to a new analysis of historical documents.</p><p>In 1911, when the White American historian and explorer, Hiram Bingham, was first led to the ancient Incan ruins, he asked a local landowner to write down the name of the site in his field journal.</p>

The year 2021 ended with a major ‘peel’ for the site as LiDAR-equipped drones helped find 12 previously unknown small structures in Machu Picchu National Park which help identify the caretakers of the complex back in the 15th century. The LiDAR also revealed previously unknown canals that show how the Incas controlled water – a feat they believed was a ‘superpower’ granted to them by the gods. As described in a new study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, a team of researchers from the Center for Andean Studies at the University of Warsaw and the Wroclaw (Poland) University...

Construction of Machu Picchu was interrupted around 1450 by a powerful earthquake, leaving damage still evident today and prompting the Inca to perfect the seismic-resistant megalithic architecture that is now so famous throughout Cusco, according to a major new scientific study revealed by Peru’s state-run news agency Andina... The Cusco-Pata Research Project determined that a temblor of at least magnitude 6.5 struck during the reign of the 9th Inca Pachacutec while he was building his now iconic summer estate atop the saddle-ridge between two craggy mountain peaks. As a result, the Inca moved away from using smaller stones, assembled in...

Machu Picchu, the famous 15th-century Inca site in southern Peru, is up to several decades older than previously thought, according to a new study led by Yale archaeologist Richard Burger.Burger and researchers from several U.S. institutions used accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) — an advanced form of radiocarbon dating...Historical sources dating from the Spanish invasion of the Inca Empire indicate that Pachacuti seized power in A.D. 1438 and subsequently conquered the lower Urubamba Valley where Machu Picchu is located. Based on those records, scholars have estimated that the site was built after A.D. 1440, and perhaps as late as A.D. 1450,...

Five tourists arrested for damaging Peru's iconic Machu Picchu site will be deported to Bolivia later on Wednesday, police said.A sixth was released from custody and ordered to remain in Machu Picchu pending trial after paying bail of $910. The six tourists -- four men and two women -- were arrested for damaging Peru's "cultural heritage" after being found in a restricted area of the Temple of the Sun on Sunday. They were also suspected of defecating inside the 600-year-old temple, an important edifice in the Inca sanctuary.

Pretty great video....

CUSCO, Peru, Security at the Peruvian historical site of Machu Picchu has been increased after a recent string of streakers invading the centuries-old Inca citadel. Late last year, guards arrested two male tourists who were caught streaking at the site. More recently, a video of a couple streaking at Machu Picchu went viral on YouTube, prompting others to follow suit, The Guardian newspaper in London reported Friday. Ricardo Ruiz Caro, Peru's new regional director of culture, announced recently that park guards will increase surveillance to "avoid these unfortunate events that threaten cultural heritage."

A team of Canary investigators is currently in remotest Peru to study a startling new archaeological discovery which came to light recently in Choquequirao, an ancient Inca site which is being described in glowing terms as Machu Picchu’s “twin town”. The find consists of a line of white stone llamas embedded in massive terraced stone walls and which, it is thought, could well form part of the entrance to the sacred valley of the Incas. And make no mistake - the expedition to Choquequirao is no jolly. The three men and two women face a gruelling five days on foot...

An offering featuiring pieces of pottery, stones and a ceremonial pot was found in Machu Picchu Inca citadel during archaeological excavations. The pieces, which were discovered by experts of Cusco's Regional Directorate of Culture, were found 70 centimeters underground. According to archeologist Carlos Werner Delgado, the artifacts were left as an offering to the gods of Machu Picchu and Salkantay snowcapped mountain due to the position they were placed underground. He noted that the pieces would date back to time of Pachacutec, between 1438 and 1470, but the ceremonial pot of Chimu culture would be the oldest one dating back...

My video about our trip to Peru. I hope you enjoy the video as much as we did the trip! :) Made using iMovie and iPhoto, by the way!

Historians have uncovered documents and maps suggesting the city had been lost and found several times before the man who officially discovered the ruins, American Hiram Bingham, got there. Funded by the National Geographic Society and friends at Yale University, Mr Bingham discovered the Peruvian city of stone terraces in 1911, earning his place among the pantheon on the world's greatest explorers. After setting out from Cuzco, he followed directions from a local man to some Inca ruins, and became the first Westerner to set eyes on the crumbling citadel. Once there, he began removing thousands of artefacts, mummies, stone...

Machu Picchu Was the Last Inca CityMachu Picchu Was a Holy NunneryMachu Picchu Was a Royal RetreatMachu Picchu Was a Re-creation of the Inca Creation MythMachu Picchu Was Built to Honor a Sacred LandscapeAll of the Above?

Only ever seen by a few people over the past century, the Inca site of Inkaraqay located on an inaccessible and nearly vertical side of the Huayna Picchu mountain that overlooks Machu Picchu, is only now being revealed to the wider world. With the appearance of a fort hanging on to the sheer drop that gives way to the Vilcanota river and the well-known moon temple below, its huge walls and terraces covering 4,500 square metres are actually agricultural in nature.

Using infrared aerial photography to penetrate the forest canopy, the team led by Briton Hugh Thomson and American Gary Zeigler located the ruins at Llactapata 50 miles northwest of the ancient Incan capital, Cusco... The site was first mentioned by explorer Hiram Bingham, the discoverer of Machu Picchu, in 1912. But he was very vague about its location, and the ruins have lain undisturbed ever since. After locating the city from the air, the expedition used machetes to hack through the jungle to reach it, 9,000 feet up the side of a mountain. They found stone buildings including a solar...

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (AP) -- Sen. Christopher Dodd says Inca artifacts removed from Machu Picchu nearly a century ago and held by Yale University belong to the people of Peru.....

About 1,400 tourists have been airlifted from near the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru following floods that destroyed road and rail links. A break in the weather allowed the government to send in helicopters, but about 800 tourists are still stranded. Tourists' patience has been stretched, with prices for some goods soaring. The Machu Picchu site, which attracts more than 400,000 visitors a year, will be closed for several weeks after the heaviest rainfall for 15 years. 'An adventure' Tourists were stranded in the town of Aguas Calientes, at the foot of the ruins, after rainfall severed road...

Desperate tourists are paying up to $500 (£300) to get on helicopters out of the ancient Inca citadel of Machu Picchu in Peru after torrential rains set off mudslides that have killed up to ten people. Britons are among the 1,500 still trapped in the area three days after the heaviest rains in 15 years flooded the area over the weekend. Rudy Chalco, a tour guide with a group of elderly Europeans, said that the rescuers were not complying with the government's orders to prioritise the evacuation of children, the elderly and sick, and that some were paying to skip...