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Machu Picchu lies in the Southern Hemisphere, 13.111 degrees south of the equator. [95] It is 80 kilometers (50 miles) northwest of Cusco, on the crest of the mountain Machu Picchu, located about 2,430 meters (7,970 feet) above mean sea level, over 1,000 meters (3,300 ft) lower than Cusco, which has an elevation of 3,400 meters (11,200 ft). [95]
The ruins of the ancient city state are near the south-eastern shore of Lake Titicaca in the La Paz Department, Ingavi Province, Tiwanaku Municipality, about 72 km (45 mi) west of La Paz. The site was first recorded in written history by Spanish conquistador and self-acclaimed "first chronicler of the Indies" Pedro Cieza de León.
Until the middle of the 18th century, it was the most important city in Spanish South America. The architecture and decoration combine the style of both the local population and Europe, such as in the Monastery of San Francisco , which was the site's original listing in 1988, before it was extended in 1991.
Tiwanaku (Spanish: Tiahuanaco or Tiahuanacu) is a Pre-Columbian archaeological site in western Bolivia, near Lake Titicaca, about 70 kilometers from La Paz, and it is one of the largest sites in South America. Surface remains currently cover around 4 square kilometers and include decorated ceramics, monumental structures, and megalithic blocks.
Archaeological sites in Peru are numerous and diverse, representing different aspects including temples and fortresses of the various cultures of ancient Peru, such as the Moche and Nazca. The sites vary in importance from small local sites to UNESCO World Heritage sites of global importance. [ 1 ]
It starts on the cold desert plateau in the High Andes and ends about 150 km (93 mi) to the south, in the plains. Over the past 10 millennia, the valley has been used as a trade route by different peoples, as the most important connection between the mountains and the plains.
In the 16th century, Spanish colonisers from Europe arrived in the Andes, eventually subjugating the indigenous kingdoms and incorporating the Andean region into the Spanish Empire. In the 19th century, a rising tide of anti-imperialist nationalism that was sweeping all of South America led rebel armies to overthrow Spanish rule.
This theory has been described as "mountainization of the rain forest" for both geographical and cultural reasons: first, after the fall of the tropical forests, the scenery of the Amazonian Andes changed to resemble the barren mountains of the Andes; second, the people who settled there brought their Andean culture with them.