Machupicchu, Peru

Aguas Calientes is a town with about 2,000 inhabitants in the Andes of South America Peru. It is located in the Urubamba Valley at 2,090 meters above sea level.

Aguas Calientes is only 1.5 km from Machu Picchu and is the starting point to visit this UNESCO World Heritage Site. The place is surrounded by steep walls of rock and cloud forest and is accessible only by a narrow gauge railway from Cusco, a road connection does not exist. In Aguas Calientes is for tourists terminus of this part of the Peruvian Southern Railway ( Ferrocarril del Sur ), the tracks run, however, further to Quillabamba. In 1913 began the construction of the 914 mm Railway, only 15 years later, the rails were laid to Aguas Calientes.

Thermal springs above the village were named for Aguas Calientes. A museum provides information about the archaeological excavations at Machu Picchu and the Inca culture.