While you may know that Machu Picchu is incredibly breathtaking, you may not know that for the past 14 years, the tourist attraction has been at the center of a legal dispute. In 2005, the Zavaleta Zavaleta family filed a suit, which claimed they were the owners of Machu Picchu. Recently, Peru’s Supreme Court made a ruling and said that the archaeological site does not belong to any one family.
The Supreme Court said the Zavaleta Zavaleta family’s claims were unfounded, according to a Ministerio de Cultura press release.
“The lawsuit was filed in 2005, and finally, after 14 years of an arduous legal battle, la Direcciòn Desconcentrada de Cultura del Cusco has successfully proved that the more than 22,000 hectares of the Machu Picchu are property of the Peruvian state and not one family’s,” said Guillermo Cortés Carcelén, the vice minister of the Patrimonio Cultural e Industrias Culturales.