Machu Picchu

In this world, there's a mysterious and cool place called Machu Picchu! It's in far, far away Peru, and they say it's an ancient city on a very, very high mountain. It's like the old houses drawn in textbooks, but Machu Picchu's houses are still standing! Machu Picchu means 'Old Mountain.' Isn't it amazing that a city was built on a mountain over 2,000 meters high? 2,000 meters is several times taller than the tallest building in our school! And these houses were built by the Inca people who lived a long, long time ago. How did they move such big stones without excavators or reinforced concrete like we have? It's truly incredible! What's even more special is that the Inca people didn't have a habit of writing, so they didn't leave any records. That's why Machu Picchu wasn't discovered by people until a very, very long time later, and it came to be called the 'Lost City of the Incas.' Inside Machu Picchu, there are three famous structures: the Intihuatana stone, the Temple of the Sun, and the Temple of the Three Windows. Just hearing the names sounds special. I guess they must have been very important places for the Inca people, perhaps for worship or meetings. These structures are still well-preserved. What I think is the coolest is that the floating city 'Laputa' in the famous Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki's film 'Castle in the Sky' was inspired by Machu Picchu! How awesome is that! In 1983, Machu Picchu was designated a 'World Heritage site' by an organization called UNESCO.