The ruins of Machu Picchu, located high on the Andes mountains in modern Peru, are one of the most beautiful and enigmatic ancient sites in the world. Invisible from below and completely self-contained, surrounded by agricultural terraces sufficient to feed the population and watered by natural springs, Machu Picchu seems to have been utilized by the Inca as a secret, ceremonial city. Two thousand feet above the rumbling Urubamba gorge, the ruins have palaces, baths, temples, storage rooms and some 150 houses, all in a remarkable state of preservation. These structures, carved from the gray granite of the mountain top, are wonders of architectural and aesthetic genius.