The agricultural terraces at Machu Picchu were a remarkable feat of engineering. The Inca built them by cutting level platforms into steep mountain slopes, filling each one with layers of material to ensure drainage and fertile growing conditions. The terraces served both practical and ceremonial purposes, and they helped make the settlement largely self-sufficient despite its remote and elevated position. Machu Picchu was likely built during the reign of the Inca ruler Pachacuti in the fifteenth century and remained unknown to the wider world until Hiram Bingham brought it to international attention in 1911.

The terraces are at their most dramatic in the dry season, roughly May through October, when clear skies allow that long golden afternoon light to fall uninterrupted across every tier.