High and far away in the Andes in South America stands Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu was built by the Inca in the mid 15th century. No one knows what its main purpose was. It may have been a city, a palace or a fortress, it may have been an important site where the Inca worshiped the Sun.
The Inca empire lasted for about 100 years, from 1430 until the Spanish destroyed it around 1532. The Spanish who destroyed many Inca places never found Machu Picchu, the people who lived there left the city some time after the Spanish invasion. Machu Picchu was forgotten until the American Hiram Bingham discovered it some 400 years later, in 1912.
