For the first time in Australia, an ancient tale of human ingenuity, ritual, unimaginable treasures and supernatural deities will be brought to life in the extraordinary exhibition Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru, which opened Saturday 23 November at Sydney’s Australian Museum.

“Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru is the most innovative way to invite travelers from Australia and all around the world to explore Peru’s many cultural and natural wonders”, says Inkaterra CEO and exhibition partner José Koechlin.

This new major cultural event, developed in partnership with Neon Global, Lima’s Museo Larco and the Ministry of Culture of Peru, shares the secrets of Peru’s ancient civilizations culminating in the Incan Empire that created Machu Picchu. Featuring the most opulent collection of Andean gold ever to travel outside Peru, the exhibition will appeal to visitors across the generations with storytelling, priceless artefacts and state-of-the-art immersive experiences, including the first-ever VR showcase of the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Peru, winner of the ‘Best Use of VR’ category at the 12th annual Lumière Awards.

After being showcased in Boca Raton (Florida), Paris and Milan, Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru has now opened in Sydney at the prestigious Australian Museum – the oldest museum in Australia and the fifth oldest natural history museum in the world.

Minister of the Arts, Music and Nighttime Economy, the Hon John Graham MLC, congratulated the Australian Museum on securing ‘Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru’ as an exclusive blockbuster exhibition for Sydney. “Once again, the Australian Museum is bringing an extraordinary exhibition to Sydney, this time celebrating the rich cultural history of Peru with Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru. Today the achievements of the ancient Inca culture still captivate the imaginations of people around the world,” Minister Graham said.

The exhibition focuses on six key themes, tracing the origins of ancient Peruvian societies, their religious beliefs and rituals, royal power, trade and agriculture. Visitors will journey through the vast expanse of Andean history, discovering the myths and cosmology of ancient Peru, through the royal burial treasures, exquisite ceramics and objects that reveal the everyday and sacred lives of six prominent cultures covering the most recent 3000 years of civilizations: Chavín, Moche, Chimú, Nazca, Lambayeque, and Inca. “We are excited to bring these treasures to the Australian Museum strengthening Peru’s bi-lateral relations with Australia through cultural exchange and multi-sensory exhibitions such as Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru,” said the Peruvian Ambassador to Australia, His Excellency Mr. Vitaliano Gallardo.

Situated on a mountain top with the Andean rainforest below, Machu Picchu is recognized as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World and a symbol of the Inca Empire’s architectural and cultural achievements. Australian Museum Director and CEO, Kim McKay AO said visitors to the Australian Museum will be able to discover ancient Peru and Machu Picchu outside of its original site.

“Full of mystery and culture dating back over 14,000 years, Peru is a stunning land of deserts etched with ancient geoglyphs shown in the Nazca Lines, soaring peaks harboring secret cities like Machu Picchu and awe-inspiring landscapes. These ancient Peruvian civilizations will come to life through 134 priceless treasures on show, many made from precious metals such as gold, silver and gilded copper,” McKay announced. “We invite visitors to uncover the extraordinary legacy of ancient Peru, by visiting Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru, exclusively here in Sydney. It is a cultural experience right at the top of everyone’s travel bucket list.”

Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru is proudly supported by major exhibition partner Adventure World, LATAM Airlines, Pullman Sydney Hyde Park, and Promperu.

Join José Koechlin, founder of Inkaterra, in conversation with Australian Museum Director Kim McKay, on an extraordinary journey through Peru’s rich biodiversity and rural traditions as he shares his groundbreaking conservation work. As the driving force behind Inkaterra, an ecotourism pioneer, José has played a pivotal role in preserving the 372 species of native orchids and creating vital habitats for up to 310 bird species at Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel.

José will discuss Inkaterra’s newest ecotourism project in Cabo Blanco, on the Tropical Pacific coast of Northern Peru, once a sport fishing mecca famously visited by Ernest Hemingway in 1957, and will reveal his ambitious plans for the Madre de Dios Sustainable Landscape Corridor, a collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution to combat environmental degradation in the Amazon.

“From Hemingway to Hummingbirds: The Heroic Conservation Efforts of José Koechlin and Inkaterra” will also reveal Koechlin’s role in repatriating Peruvian treasures from Yale University, and how Inkaterra helped make Machu Picchu the first carbon-neutral wonder of the world.

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to hear from a true conservation hero, on Thursday 28 November, 6:30pm at the Australian Museum.

UK newspaper The Guardian featured a sneak preview of the new exhibition at the Australian Museum, Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru.

“The great Inca citadel, instantly recognisable as Peru’s world heritage-listed Machu Picchu, is the drawing card for the museum’s major summer exhibition… Beneath such sensational fodder as the most opulent collection of gold to ever travel outside Peru, plenty of impossible-to-wear jewellery, and bloodthirsty tales of human sacrifice, the exhibition tracks the existence of six different Andean societies over 3,000 years – Chavín, Moche, Chimú, Nazca, Lambayeque and Inca,” The Guardian reports.

This extraordinary multi-sensory experience features stunning artifacts from Lima’s Museo Larco. These priceless treasures illuminate the artistic brilliance and cultural sophistication of ancient Peru, offering fascinating insights into the daily lives, spiritual beliefs and extraordinary achievements of these millenary civilizations. According to The Guardian, in Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru “the Andean worldview is brought to life with more than 130 artefacts, many emphasizing the balance between the three distinct realms of sky, land and earth.”

Click the button below to read the full article on Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru, running until May 2025 at Sydney’s Australian Museum.

The bird count for Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel keeps going up at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s eBird app, now registering 310 bird species within its grounds. A record that confirms this dreamlike place as one of the most biodiversity-rich urban hotspots in the world.

Recently awarded as one of Travel + Leisure’s 500 Favorite Hotels and Resorts in the World, Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel is a pioneering case of regenerative tourism. Its grounds were originally used for grazing. In 1976, Inkaterra began the restoration of the cycle of life in the Machu Picchu cloud forest, through the reforestation of native flora such as ferns, bromeliads, and native trees including the queñual and the pisonay. Nowadays, Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel’s lush gardens host up to 111 butterfly species, as well as the largest native orchid collection found according to the American Orchid Society, with 372 species. Additionally, the organic tea produced in the hotel grounds won the gold medal at the 2023 Annual Teas of the World Awards in Paris, as well as two silver medals in this year’s competition.

eBird is among the world’s largest biodiversity-related science projects, with more than 100 million bird sightings contributed annually by eBirders around the world, documenting bird distribution, abundance, habitat use, and trends through checklist data collected within a simple, scientific framework.