Local and foreign visitors protested last week because they couldn’t get to Machu Picchu. Peru’s Ministry of Culture has informed that tickets are sold out until mid-August and the capacity has reached its maximum limit, according to CNN servers.

On July 17, the Ministry increased the visitor capacity by one thousand tickets, to 4,044 tickets per day. In this mode, the monument is supposed to function until the end of the year. Finally, on Thursday, the limit was increased to 5,044 tickets.

“As part of this decision, we are considering the protection of the monument, as we do not want irreparable damage to occur here. Everything is in accordance with the recommendations of UNESCO,” the Culture Ministry wrote ahead of Thursday’s capacity increase of another thousand tickets.

Authorities urge tourists to plan their visits to the famous Inca ruins well in advance and it is not surprising that no tickets are available.

Machu Picchu has changed the conditions for visiting a lot over the last few years. Visitors have to buy tickets tied to a certain block of time to spread the crowd more.

In the past, the UNESCO organization has threatened authorities several times to put the ruins on the list of endangered monuments if more is not done to protect them. However, he recommends limiting daily visitors to around half of the current set of around 3,000 people per day. Five thousand is currently well above this limit.