High-altitude landscapes had various spiritual significance for many cultures as they served as a location of reverence.

Though the 16th-century Spanish conquistador invasion ended the Inca Empire, the legacy of the ... the royal Incan retreat and religious shrine. Machu Picchu was only one of many cities ...

and a place were the Inca used in one of their most dramatic and powerful religious ceremonies: human sacrifice. To the Incan eye, the landscape of their empire was riddled with shrines.