Machu Picchu

Temples, dwellings and farming terraces divide the ridge between them. Movement is one way, so anything missed needs a fresh ticket to see again.

A narrow stair climbs the peak behind the site, and only two hundred people a day go up. Wet stone turns slick and some stretches have no rail.

The old Inca road entered through this pass, ninety minutes on foot. Climbing early, you watch the cloud lift off the ruins.

A ledge cut into the cliff ends at a gap spanned by laid timbers. Crossing is not permitted and the path turns back there.

A pillar carved out of the bedrock, read as an instrument for tracking the sun. Touching it is forbidden and it is viewed from behind a line.

The slope was cut into steps and packed with layers of gravel and soil so water would drain. That drainage is why the structure held in a wet region.

The village in the gorge below is reached by train and nothing else. Buses climb to the site every half hour, and going up on foot takes ninety minutes.

The train follows the river through the gorge, and some carriages carry roof windows. Classes differ in price, and in season the seats go weeks ahead.

Between the village and the ruins, it lays out the finds and the building methods. Few people go, and stopping in before the site makes the ruins easier to read.

The southern peak stands higher than Huayna Picchu and climbs more gently. At the summit the entire site and the valley lie below together.

A tower-like temple with a curved wall set on a great boulder, the smoothest masonry on the site. One window is thought to line up with the June solstice sunrise. Visitors look down from the path above, and the cleft beneath is called the Royal Tomb.

Two natural rock slabs read as outspread wings, with the head and beak carved into the floor stone. It comes near the end of the route through the lower sector. A small chamber hides under the wing rocks, and people stoop to peer in.

A stone temple facing east over the Sacred Plaza through three trapezoid windows. The Principal Temple beside it is built of huge blocks, and settling ground has split one wall. The windows face the morning sun, so the light is best in the morning.

A thatched stone hut where the upper agricultural terraces run out. The postcard view of Machu Picchu is shot from right beside it. Early morning, as the cloud lifts, is quietest; by afternoon there is a queue for the photo.

Four days on an old Inca road, arriving at Machu Picchu through the Sun Gate. Daily numbers are capped, guides and porters included, so permits go months in advance. The trail shuts every February for maintenance.

Terraces and stone houses stacked down a slope on the last stretch of the Inca Trail. The one-day short trail starting at the km 104 rail stop also reaches it. The Sun Gate is a couple of hours further, so a late start risks missing the last bus down.

Finely cut niches and walls hidden in a large cave low on the back of Huayna Picchu. Whether you can reach it depends on the route your ticket covers, and the trail sometimes closes for upkeep, so check when booking. It adds a lot of up and down.

The open-air hot pools that gave the town, whose name means hot waters, its name. Walk Avenida Pachacutec, the main street, uphill until it ends and they are there. Minerals cloud the water, and the evening after a trek is when they fill up.

A small peak in front of Huayna Picchu; the name means little mountain. The climb is short and gentler, so it is the usual pick when Huayna Picchu tickets are gone. The summit looks at the ruins from close and low.

Drive from Cusco via Santa Teresa to the hydroelectric plant, then follow the railway on foot to Aguas Calientes. It is the cheapest way in without a train, two to three hours beside the tracks. Rain turns it to mud, so pack a torch and a poncho.

A field of loose granite between the residential and temple sectors where builders cut their stone. Some blocks still bear grooves cut for wedges, showing how the rock was split. The many abandoned pieces are read as a sign that construction never finished.