One of the world's best-known archaeological sites, and a tourist attraction that draws hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, is the ancient city of Machu Picchu.

The site has been known by the wrong name since it was rediscovered more than a century ago, according to a new academic paper.

A leading US archaeologist and a Peruvian historian believe that the Unesco world heritage site is known as Huayna Picchu, or simply "Inka", or a peak overlooking the ruins.

In their paper, published by the Journal of Andean Archaeology, they say they scoured place names on 19th-century maps.

There is widespread academic consensus that the lost city was never really lost, despite the fact that it was discovered in 1911.

The ruins were not well known among those who lived in the Cusco region at the time of their rediscovery, according to findings by Gonzales and Bauer.

We began with the uncertainty of the name of the ruins when Bingham first visited them and then reviewed several maps and atlases printed before his visit to the ruins.

The ruins of the town of Huayna Picchu were mentioned in a 1904 atlas seven years before the arrival of Bingham.

The investigators say that the site of the ruins of the Urubamba River was told to Bingham before he went to search for it. The ruins were called Huayna Picchu by the son of the landowner, they say.

The accounts written by the Spanish conquerors after they conquered Cusco in the late 16th century have the most definitive connections to the original name of the city.

The Indigenous people of the region were considering returning to reoccupy the site, which they called Huayna Picchu, he said.

Visitors can hike to the summit of the peak to get the best view of the ruin.

Few historians think a name change is on the cards for the site.

Natalia Sobrevilla is a professor of Latin American history at the University of Kent.

Shakespeare said that a rose by any other name would smell sweet.