[Lee Stewart]

Today Machu Picchu is on the bucket list of dream trips for many travelers, but there was a time it was an Incan city spanning over five miles. Historians believe it was a religious or royal site but the city's origins are largely mysterious. Machu Picchu was abandoned in the early 1500s around the time the Spanish Conquistadors. Since archeologists haven't discovered evidence the area was attacked, many speculate the population could have been wiped out by a smallpox epidemic.