Death by selfie: Man falls off a cliff at Machu Picchu while posing for a photo
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}LUCMABAMBA TO AGUAS CALIENTES, PERU - JULY 2007: The trek ascends the Patallacta pass (2700m) while still in the cloud forest, Lucmabamba Peru, 01 July 2007. We see young trekkers travelling on a budget trek down to Aguas Calientes on their way to see Machu Picchu. They are depicted as they see the first view of the back wall of the famous site. The trek continues down hill to the hydro-electric plant and man made-waterfall until the group comes to the train station from where they take a 30 minute ride to the town of Aguas Calientes. Later that day we visit Machu Picchu and see the ruins under a late afternoon sun. That night there is a full moon and we photograph Macchu Picchu under the moonlight in what must be a timeless centuries-old scene. The next morning the group walks around the ruins for an hour and witnesses tourists groups of all nationalites interacting around Macchu Pichu. Finally the group takes a Cuzco bound train on their way home. (photo by Brent Stirton/Getty Images.) (2010 Getty Images)
A German tourist fell off a cliff and died Wednesday while posing for a photo in Machu Picchu, the Inca citadel in southern Peru.
Oliver Park, 51, had ventured into a restricted area of the tourist spot in the Andes, and despite signs warning people to stay away from the cliff’s edge, he asked a fellow tourist to take his photo.
He then lost his balance and fell 130 feet to his death.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"He asked a man who was there to take a photo of him," Guillermo Mestas, a Peruvian tourist recounted to Canal N.
“The man came over to take the photo and in the moment he was handing him the camera, he lost his balance and fell.”
A conflicting report from the BBC says the man was posing for the photo by leaping into the air and lost his footing.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Park's body was removed from the Peruvian mountainside, and carried by train to a morgue in the city of Cusco.
Death-by-selfie is not as uncommon as one would think.
Also this week, and also in Peru, a South Korean tourist fell to his death while taking a selfie in the Amazon rainforest — he falling 1,600 feet off the Gocta waterfall.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Last year, a Japanese tourist died after falling down stairs while taking a selfie at the Taj Mahal.
According to The Washington Post, in March a Washington man fatally shot himself in the face while taking a selfie with what he believed was an unloaded gun.
Believed to have been a royal estate or sacred religious site for Inca leaders, Machu Picchu was built by the Incas in the 15th century, and later abandoned by the Spanish conquistadors a century later.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The site is located 8,000 feet above sea level, and the ruins lie on a high ridge offering astounding views of the Sacred Valley, through which the Urubamba River flows 2,000 feet below. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.
More than one million visitors made the journey to Machu Picchu in 2014 alone.