It is the closest access point to the historical site of Machu Picchu which is 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) away or about a 90-minute walk.

It took off after the railroad opened in 1931 and foreign tourists started arriving to visit the Machu Picchu ruins.

Enterprising individuals set up businesses serving the tourists, primarily restaurants and small hotels.

Settled by a few farm families in 1901, the settlement was transformed into a busy railway worker's camp called Maquinachayoq (from Quechua makina (a borrowing from Spanish máquina, machine/locomotive/train,[5] -plus the diminutive -cha suffix and -yuq possession suffix, i.e. "(place) with a little train", Makinachayuq)[6] during the construction of the railroad through there in the late 1920s.

[7] Machupicchu serves as a terminal for the PeruRail and Inca Rail[8] passenger train service from Cusco.