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A Walking Tour of Machu Picchu, Peru

By , About.com Guide

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Terraces and Diplomacy
Machu Picchu: view looking down the mountain from inside the ruins.

Machu Picchu: view looking down the mountain from inside the ruins.

Photograph by Gina Carey
Pachacuti's campaign of conquest and diplomacy extended Inca control out over the Central and Southern Highlands of Peru. Over the next 55 years, Pachacuti and his son Topa Inca conquered major portions of the southern coast of Peru, the northern half of Chile, northwest Argentina, and eastern Bolivia. It was Pachacuti who began the fabulous white granite constructions in Cuzco itself as well as at Machu Picchu that are known as Inca architecture.

This view of Machu Picchu looks down along the steep mountain slope, which has been girdled with stone terraces built to stop soil erosion and allow the raising of crops, including potatoes and cotton.

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