Machu Picchu has lost little of its mystery in the more than ninety years since its scientific discovery, but recent finds have given the site a new context best demonstrated by travelling there on foot in a spectacular pilgrimage along ancient Inca roads, although the ruins can also be accessed by rail via a route known to enthusiasts as one of the world’s great train journeys.

Machu Picchu was the capital of a province of the Inca empire which was planned, constructed and abandoned in a period of less than a hundred years. Eight Inca roads converged on the city, conquering a wild and vertical landscape.

Hiram Bingham never realised that he had discovered an entire lost Inca province, with Machu Picchu at its centre. Today, the Machu Picchu Historical Sanctuary (MPHS) covers an area of 32,592 hectares and contains some of the most breathtaking scenery on Earth. Uniquely in South America, the sanctuary was declared both a Cultural and Natural World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1983, in recognition of its archaeological and natural wonders.

It is the MPHS’s geographical location, forming the transition zone between the Andes and the Amazon, which makes it unique. The extraordinary altitudinal range, from 6,271 metres to 1,725 metres, means that the MPHS comprises ten distinct life zones, from glaciers and highland pasture to cloud forests and the Amazon basin. This remarkable range of habitats brings with it incredible biodiversity. Within the sanctuary, over 420 species of birds have been recorded (or 5% of the world’s species) and 250 species of orchids have been registered (although it is thought that this figure may represent just half of the orchid species within the sanctuary).