Machu Picchu, a pre-Columbian Inca site located 2,430 meters (7,970 ft) above sea level in Peru, hosted a radio contact with the crew of the International Space Station on Thursday.

Machu Picchu, commonly referred as ?The Lost City of the Incas? is the most familiar icon of the Inca Empire which was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America.

The official language of the empire was Quechua. Machu Picchu was declared a Peruvian Historical Sanctuary in 1981 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.

Machu Picchu was built around 1450, at the height of the Inca Empire and was abandoned almost over 100 years later, in 1572.

The Russian and Peruvian delegations talked with the ISS crew for 10 minutes Thursday. The conversation was made in three languages — Russian, Spanish and the Peru Indian language of Quechua.