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Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies

University of Arkansas

Machu Picchu 3D Data

Home » Research » Archaeology/Historic Preservation » Archaeological Informatics » Internet Virtual Metrology Lab (InVirMet) » InVirMet Data Repository » Machu Picchu 3D Data

In 2005, researchers from CAST used the Optech ILRIS-3D laser scanner to scan the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru.  To read more about the survey, please visit the section on Machu Picchu Project Details. 

Three data sets from the Machu Picchu survey are available here as point clouds in the Polyworks PWK format (as IMInspect projects).  Data are currently not available in polygonal mesh format.  Be sure and visit the Free Data Viewer section to download the latest version of Polyworks IMView that allows you to not only view and interact with the data but also perform different types of measurements.  

Image and Download	Data Description
MP_closeup_reduced.pwzip (73 mb)	MP_closeup_reduced.pwk is our "enticer" data set for Machu Picchu and has been reduced for *relatively quick download and viewing.  The data have been subset from a single scan and reduced by half (from an original data resolution of 3 centimenters).  The scan area covers the central portion of the site featuring several structures and a small “plaza” area. In the scan, you can see the beautiful details of the Incan masonry that was acquired with the laser scanner.  This data set contains slightly less than one million data points.
MP_huayna_picchu.pwzip (117 mb)	Huayna Picchu is the large peak directly to the north of Machu Picchu  (commonly seen in most photos of Machu Picchu). MP_huayna_picchu.pwzip consists of a single scan of the ruins atop of Huayna Picchu.  This scan was acquired from a distance of over 500 meters away and took approximately two hours to complete.  The scan was acquired at a 3 cm resolution and contains 5 million data points.
MP_entiresite.pwzip (228 mb)	MP_entiresite.pwk represents the complete Machu Picchu data set consisting of 8 merged scans. The data were acquired over a period of four nights at 3 - 20 cm resolution resulting in a collection of nearly 30 million data points. For viewing purposes, the data have been reduced here to 8 million points.   This particular data set really gives the user a feel of what it is like to“be” at Machu Picchu.  Note file size = 228 mb.