Peru facts for kids: Machu Picchu, the Incas and culture

The Incas and Machu Picchu

The Incas built one of the largest empires in the Americas. Their empire, called Tawantinsuyu, controlled much of the Andes Mountains in the 1400s and 1500s.^[3]

Machu Picchu is the most famous place they left behind. It was built in the 1400s by the Incas, about 2,430 meters above sea level, on the eastern slopes of the Andes where the mountains meet the Amazon basin.^[2] After the Spanish conquest in the 1500s it was abandoned, and it became known to the outside world in 1911.^[2]

The Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu protects more than 32,000 hectares of mountains, peaks and valleys around the ancient citadel.^[2] It is a UNESCO World Heritage site for both its culture and its nature.^[2] Its stone buildings, terraces and stairs show how skilled Inca builders were at working with mountains.

Peru’s history goes back much further than the Incas. The Sacred City of Caral-Supe, on a desert terrace above the green valley of the Supe River, is about 5,000 years old.^[8] UNESCO calls it the oldest center of civilization in the Americas.^[8] Its builders raised six large pyramid structures and sunken circular plazas, and archaeologists found a quipu there, a set of knotted cords used to keep records.^[8] The Incas later used quipus too, so Caral shows how old some Andean ideas are.

Cusco, the Inca capital

Cusco was the capital of the Inca Empire.^[3] It sits high in the Peruvian Andes, at about 3,400 meters above sea level.^[3] Under the Inca ruler Pachacuteq, the city was redesigned with areas for religion and government.^[3]

The most important Inca temple was Qoricancha, the Temple of the Sun.^[3] After the Spanish conquest in the 1500s, the Spanish kept the Inca street plan but built churches, monasteries and mansions on top of the Inca city, mostly in Baroque style.^[3]

That is why in Cusco today you can see Inca stone walls at the base of colonial buildings.^[3] The City of Cuzco is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and it is the starting point for many trips to Machu Picchu.^[3]

The Nasca Lines

In the desert of southern Peru, about 400 kilometers south of Lima, giant drawings cover the ground.^[4] They are the Nasca Lines and geoglyphs, made between about 500 BCE and 500 CE.^[4]

The geoglyphs include figures of animals, birds, insects, flowers, plants and trees, as well as long straight lines and geometric shapes.^[4] Many are so large that they are best seen from the air or from nearby hills.

The area has some of the lowest rainfall in the world, which helped the lines survive for so long.^[4] Scientists still study why they were made. The Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Palpa are a UNESCO World Heritage site.^[4]

Food: ceviche

Peruvian food is famous around the world, and ceviche is its best-known dish. Ceviche is raw fish cured in citrus juice and seasoned with chili and salt, served with fresh local produce.^[5] The citrus "cooks" the fish without heat.

UNESCO added the practices and meanings of ceviche to its list of intangible cultural heritage in 2023.^[5] UNESCO links the dish to the feast of Saint Peter, the patron saint of small-scale fishers.^[5]

Peru also gave the world the potato, which was first grown in the Andes, along with many varieties of corn and peppers. Each region of Peru, from the coast to the mountains to the Amazon, has its own dishes.

Festivals and languages

Every February, the city of Puno, near Lake Titicaca, celebrates the Festivity of the Virgen de la Candelaria.^[6] Its main participants belong to the Quechua and Aymara peoples.^[6] Several thousand dancers and musicians from across the region take part in two big contests.^[6] The festivity joined UNESCO’s intangible heritage list in 2014.^[6]

Peru has about 35 million people.^[1] Spanish is the most widely spoken language, and Quechua and Aymara, the languages of Andean Indigenous peoples, are also official. Many people speak more than one of these languages.

Lima, on the Pacific coast, is the capital and largest city. Peru has many UNESCO World Heritage sites.^[7] Students can compare Peru with its neighbors on our South America page.