Aguas Calientes

The Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu was built around 1450 as a royal estate for the emperor Pachacuti, abandoned within a century, and brought to world attention by Hiram Bingham in 1911; UNESCO listed it in 1983 as a masterpiece of urbanism and engineering. Perched at 2,430 metres, its finest work clusters around the Temple of the Sun, a curved tower of polished granite fitted over a natural rock, and the Intihuatana, the carved ritual stone whose name means "hitching post of the sun". The Temple of the Three Windows frames the eastern mountains through trapezoidal openings that have puzzled astronomers for a century.

Beyond the showpiece temples the estate reveals itself in details: the Sacred Plaza, the ceremonial heart of the upper city; the Temple of the Condor, where two natural outcrops form a bird's wings over a carved head in the floor; and the Sacred Rock, a slab shaped to echo the mountain silhouette behind it. The House of the Guardian to the Funerary Rock, a thatched hut on the highest terraces, is where the classic postcard view is taken, and a good place to listen to how the whole site was laid out.

Two mountains bracket the ruins and both need a separately reserved ticket. Huayna Picchu, the sugarloaf in every photograph, is a steep, exposed climb of about an hour that passes the Temple of the Moon, a shrine built into a cave on its far side. Montaña Machu Picchu is longer and gentler, ending on a summit high above the citadel. For a shorter option, Huchuy Picchu is a modest bump with a big panorama.

The classic way to arrive is the Inca Trail, a multi-day trek along original paved paths through cloud forest and ruins. Its final morning passes the terraces of Intipata and the beautifully sited Winay Wayna before cresting at the Sun Gate, or Inti Punku, where the citadel appears all at once at dawn. Day visitors can walk up to the Sun Gate from inside the site for the same view in reverse.

Aguas Calientes is lively, a little chaotic, and built almost entirely for visitors, but it rewards an evening wander. Manco Capac Square is the compact main plaza, watched over by the Parroquia Virgen del Carmen and a statue of the first Inca. The sprawling Mercado Aguas Calientes by the tracks sells alpaca knits, carvings and hot lunches at local prices. And the town's name comes from the Machu Picchu HotSprings at the top of Avenida Pachacutec, where sulphurous pools of 38 to 46 °C soothe legs that have just climbed a mountain.

The gorge is a slice of high jungle, and short walks lead into it. The Manuel Chávez Ballón Site Museum, about a mile downriver beside the bridge, is the official museum of the site and explains Inca engineering better than any panel on the mountain; its Machupicchu Botanical Garden grows more than 200 orchid varieties. Further along the tracks, the Santuario Natural de Mandor and the three-tiered Cascadas Alcamayo offer birdsong, hummingbirds and a 30-metre fall, while the Butterfly Zoo - Mariposario of Machu Picchu shelters some 300 species. The adventurous take on Phutuq K'usi (Putucusi), a near-vertical climb of wooden ladders to a rare side view of the citadel.

Trains from PeruRail and Inca Rail terminate at the Machu Picchu Pueblo station in the centre of town. From Avenida Hermanos Ayar, shuttle buses grind up the switchbacks of the Hiram Bingham road in about 20 minutes from 5:30 a.m.; the Hiram Bingham Hiking Trail to Machu Picchu shortcuts the same hairpins on foot in roughly ninety minutes. Budget travellers arrive along the railway from Hidroeléctrica, a two-to-three-hour riverside walk from the power station. Daily entry to the citadel is capped, and circuits and add-on hikes sell out well in advance, so book the ticket before the train.