Future: Machu Picchu
AI left the Machu Picchu site itself relatively undisturbed. The terraces are visible, the colca and kancha are still in their deteriorated but preserved state. But the picturesque mountainside and its valleys have been infilled with urban development, and a lot of it. High density skyscrapers have filled in the mountains, overtaking the land and cutting into the treasured mountainside. The likelihood of this happening, however, is questionable. The terrain in the Peruvian mountains may make skyscraper building a perilous task with more trouble than reward. Getting materials to the site would be more expensive than building in the lowlands. The terrain would take more leveling than a mountainside could withstand. Slopes are notoriously unstable, and no builder would risk skyscrapers like this tumbling down. This is an unlikely future for a treasured site, even if the site itself is relatively well preserved.
