Machu Picchu (Quechua: Machu Piqchu Old Peak; sometimes called the "Lost City of the Incas") is a pre-Columbian city created by the Inca. It is located at 2,430 m on a mountain ridge about 70 km northwest of Cusco. Machu Picchu was constructed around 1450, at the height of the Inca empire, and was abandoned less than 100 years later, as the empire collapsed under Spanish conquest. It was never found and destroyed by the Spaniards, though. It is said that the silhouette of the mountain range behind Machu Picchu represents the face of the Inca looking upward towards the sky, with the largest peak, Huayna Picchu (meaning Young Peak), representing his pierced nose.