Weary from hiking for hours, directed by a friendly pair of local farmers, he marched into the mountains accompanied ... midst of as wonderful ruins as any ever found in Peru," he wrote.

Machu Picchu, the royal retreat of the Incan emperor Pachacuti, sits atop the Urubamba Valley in Peru ... Mountain, which looms nearly 1,000 feet above terraces, plazas and stone ruins as mists ...

Ian McCurry spent his March in Peru, meeting up with friends and family; here, he poses at the top of Huayna Picchu, his copy ...

It is the designated Historical Capital of Peru and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The 20-mile trek takes hikers on a whirlwind journey through lush highlands and even more magical mountain ruins.

In 1964, adventurer Gene Savoy identified ruins and proved that Espiritu Pampa (in the Vilcabamba region of Peru, west of Machu ... the region still today. The mountains that cradle the site ...