Where: near Cuzco, Peru, South America

Built: Date unknown, about 1440

Lost for centuries to the outside world until 1911, the "Lost City of the Incas" is a well-preserved pre-Columbian Inca ruin. Unesco- protected since 1983.

"Machu Picchu is a trip to the serenity of the soul, to the eternal fusion with the cosmos ... it is one of the greatest marvels of South America" - Pablo Neruda, poet