As a result of a recent visit by Peru's Vice-minister of Cultural Heritage, Luis Castillo Butters, and the Cusco's Regional Director of Culture, Ricardo Ruiz Caro, a variety of changes have been planned for Machu Picchu Citadel. The visiting functionaries agreed upon the necessity of implementing new measures to provide national and foreign visitors with better amenities while still preserving the archeological site and the biodiversity of the greater area known as Machu Picchu Sanctuary. The biggest change is that the new control post which regulates entry in Machu Picchu Citadel will be located just a few meters from the Ruinas Bridge, close to the Manuel Chávez Ballón Museum.
The museum itself is an excellent but small and often overlooked institution which displays artifacts found at the Machu Picchu archeological site, historical photos and items from the site's excavations, and a scale model of the ruins explaining the purpose of different structures and the construction methods used. Furthermore, one can learn about the area's flora at the museum's botanical garden.
Visitors will pass through the control point, which will double as a large visitor center complete with restrooms and cloakroom. There, visitors will receive information from Ministry of Culture personnel regarding Machu Picchu and the research conducted there. Afterwords they will continue on foot to the Inca citadel. The museum will also receive increased investment in order to offer a first-rate site museum.
The functionaries have also evaluated the need to install hygienic services within the citadel, which receives 2,500 visitors daily. According to Butters, specialists will be consulted, and the experience of other world monuments will be studied, in order to offer this amenity without adversely affecting the site and its natural surroundings. As Ruiz Caro put it, "We want to provide all the comforts to national and foreign tourists, replicating the best experiences of emblematic world heritage sites, but at the same time, we will require respect for the monument and its sacredness."
