Choquequirao

You may not have heard of Choquequirao, but that was intentional.

3,085m up in the Salkantay Mountain Range, the ‘lost city of the Incas' and ‘sister' city of Machu Picchu, was ignored completely by the chroniclers of the age, because as independent archaeologist Gary Ziegler said to the New York Times earlier this year, “the Spanish never found it.”

Instead, when it was abandoned in the late 16 th Century, it seemed as if the Incas just downed tools and left, as Ziegler describes it, “like someone just turned out the light and walked away overnight.” What they left was a spectacular sprawling city, 30-40% of which has still yet to be uncovered. It is the splendid isolation of Choquequirao that protected it from the spotlight, then and now. Perched thousands of feet above the twinkling turquoise of the river Rio Apurimac, it takes a 20 mile journey into the mountains on horseback or by foot, plus a stiff 9,000 foot climb to reach the city. But this could be all about to change. Like Machu Picchu 25 years ago, mass tourism is tentatively knocking on the door, and the Peruvian government is responding by planning to build a funicular railway up the mountain.