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Machu Picchu was built by the Incas in 1450 and abandoned 100 years later as the Incan empire collapsed.

The Incan empire crumbled when the Spanish conquistadors arrived in South America looking for gold and other valuable minerals and ores. Even though the conquistadors were very violent, their diseases were probably responsible for more deaths than their guns.

An American academic, Hiram Bingham, is accredited as having "rediscovered" Machu Picchu, on his quest to find the last hold of the Incans in 1911.

He was led to the site by a local boy, whose family had started re-using the terraces for farming. The site, however, is not the final hold of the Incas, who retreated further into the Amazon to escape the Spaniards.

Today there are still Indians living in the Amazon who have escaped Western influence. Check out this article for a recent siting of one such tribe.