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This beautiful, quiet place
is covered in sunshine
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and has mountains
all around it.
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Its name is
Machu Picchu.
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It's sometimes called
the lost city of the Inca,
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and it's nearly 8,000
feet up in the Andes.
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It's a magic attraction,
that you can feel it here.
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It's known all over
the world that
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Machu Picchu is one of the
magnetic centres of the ancient world.
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Machu Picchu is
more than 500 years old.
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Today, it's a favourite place
for visitors from all over the world.
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Even in the rain and fog,
it's wonderful to walk through the ruins.
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When the Inca civilisation ended,
few people knew Machu Picchu existed.
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For a long time it was lost
to the outside world.
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Then, in 1911, an explorer
called Hiram Bingham found it again.
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At first, very few people
visited Machu Picchu.
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But now, hundreds of tourists
come here every day.
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They walk up the steps of
the ancient city and climb over the ruins.
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Machu Picchu is no longer quiet.
It's full of the sounds of tourists.
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Some people in Peru hope that
more tourists will come here.
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They think it will mean more
business and money for the country.
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However,
some conservationists worry
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that more visitors
won't be good for Machu Picchu.
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They say that tourism may not
be good for the environment.
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José,
a local hotel owner,
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says Machu Picchu and Peru
can take a few more visitors.
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Why not be like
the rest of the world?
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Why not expose and show
Machu Picchu to the rest of the world?
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It's such a wonderful place,
why keep it to the few?
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The truth is that
parts of Peru are very poor,
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and tourists bring money
to these communities.
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Aguas Calientes is a town that
grew suddenly near an area
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where visitors get on buses
to get to the summit of Machu Picchu.
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The people here live completely
on money from tourism.
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The town is just
a group of stalls
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where local people sell art and things
they have made to visitors.
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The 'Lost City' is no longer lost.
Tourists have found it.
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The modern world is coming closer
to this ancient world every day.
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Time may be running out
for the 'Lost City of the Inca'.
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More and more people
are discovering it.
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In the end, it may be the modern world
that forever changes this ancient city.
