Machu Picchu, the royal retreat of the Incan emperor Pachacuti, sits atop the Urubamba Valley in Peru. Meaning "Old Mountain" in the Quechua Indian language, the complex was constructed in the ...

a royal estate, an astronomical observatory? And nobody can say with any certainty what became of its original inhabitants. That’s why Machu Picchu is “one of those places that overdelivers ...

But archaeological evidence indicates that no more than 750 people lived in Machu Picchu at its peak, most of them essentially support staff to the royal family; it was hardly a "city," even by ...