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Machu Picchu, Peru
Sat 2,430m up among lush forest in the Andes, the lost city of the Incas only became known to the outside world in 1911. The remote mountaintop citadel’s heyday was bright and brief. Built in the 15th century for emperor Pachacuti, it was abandoned little more than a hundred years later, after the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. Added to the UNESCO list in 1983, it’s one of the best-preserved pre-Columbian archaeological sites and features 200 buildings, including religious, ceremonial, astronomical and agricultural structures.
