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Peru

Machu Picchu, the 15th-century Inca citadel perched at 2,430m in the Andes, was built without mortar and stayed unknown to the outside world until 1911. Peru is also home to a stretch of the Amazon rainforest and the northern edge of the Atacama, the driest desert on Earth.

Aerial view of the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu in the Andes mountains, Peru

Machu Picchu in the Andes

Photo: Martin St-Amant, CC BY-SA 3.0

Legend credits the colors to liberator Jose de San Martin, said to have been inspired by red-and-white flamingos he saw on a coastal flight in 1820. Adopted in its current form in 1825.

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