In his first journey to South America, Yale professor Hiram Bingham longed to explore the hidden lands that lay beyond the snowcapped peaks of the Andes. Legend had it that the lost city of the Inca, Vilcapampa, lay there. Bingham was determined to discover it.
In July 1911, Bingham and his fellow adventurers arrived in Cusco, the first capital city of the Inca. What lay ahead for them was far from what they had expected.
On July 24, 1911, he discovered Machu Picchu, an ancient Inca settlement in Peru. Bingham was fascinated by the “lost” history of the Inca Empire, and intrigued by the ruins he explored near the city of Cusco. A farmer told Bingham and his team that there were more ruins on top of a nearby mountain.
The Incas built the city on terraces and there were hundreds ofstairs and paths connecting the terraces. The paths also connected open spaces called plazas, houses and a cemetery.
Often referred to as "The Lost City of the Incas", Machu Picchu is one of the most familiar symbols of the Inca Empire. The Incas started building it around1460 AD but was abandoned as an official site for the Inca rulers a hundred years later, at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire.
The discovery
of Manchu Picchu by Hiram Bingham
