Machu Picchu Most of the outlying buildings have been reconstructed in order to give tourists a better idea of how they originally appeared. By 1976, thirty percent of Machu Picchu had been restored and restoration continues. Machu Picchu was declared a Peruvian Historic Sanctuary in 1981 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. In 2007, Machu Picchu was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in a worldwide Internet poll. In the Quechua language, "machu" means "old" or "old person", while "pikchu" means either "portion of coca being chewed" or "pyramid, pointed multi-sided solid; cone". The name of
Machu Picchu center. Owned by the National University of San Antonio Abad del Cusco, La Casa Concha also features a study area for local and foreign students. The Paramount Pictures film "Secret of the Incas" (1955), with Charlton Heston and Ima Sumac, was filmed on location at Cusco and Machu Picchu, the first time that a major Hollywood studio filmed on site. Five hundred indigenous people were hired as extras in the film. The opening sequence of the film "Aguirre, the Wrath of God" (1972) was shot in the Machu Picchu area and on the stone stairway of Huayna Picchu. Machu Picchu