This sanctuary was stablisted on January 8, 1981, through (D.S.) N 001-81-AA. In 1983 UNESCO declared it as the Cultural and Natural in heritance of the Humanity. This Sanctuary is located in the department of Cusco, province of Urubamba, district of Machu Picchu. It has a surface of 32 592 hectares. Besides the beautiful citadel of Machupicchu there are in the area other 34 archaeological sites conected by the famous Inca path.
The flora is exhuberant, in the low lands we find the also (Alnus jorullensis), the pisonay (Erythrina falcota), the walnut tree (Junglans neotropica), the intimpa (Podocarpus glomeratus; the quishuar (Buddleia incana), the queñual (Polylepsis racemosa), the cedar (Cedrela sp.) and many others like palm trees and archids (30 types and 190 species) which flower all the year, among the most beautiful archids we can see the Maxillaria floribunda among others.
With regard to the fauna, among the birds we can notice the condor (vultur gryphus) and different gummingbirds, among the mammals we observe the Taruka Taruka (Mazzama chunyi), the puma (Puma con color), the ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) and some species of monkeys like Cebus, Saimiri, Aotus and Lagothrix the last one in danger of extinction.
The gallito de las rocas (Rupicola peruviana), the spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus) the outter (Lutra longicaudis) and the wild cat (Oncifelis colocolo). The main goals of this Historical Sanctuary of Machu Picchu are the protection of the archaeological sites in the area and the preservation the wild flora and fauna of this area.
