MACHU PICCHU PERU

MACHU PICCHU PERU is Famous by Hiram Bingham, explorer and professor of South American history first crossed the PeruHiram Binghamvian mountains in February 1909, the wettest month ofthe year, making his travels difficult. However, his visit to the ruins of Choquequirao stimulated his interest in the Incas. In 1911 he returned with the Yale Peruvian Expedition which was actually intended to visit the Urubamba River and surrounds, to find the last capital of the Incas.

Bingham studied writings of the Conquest and colonial documents, with the intention of knowing exactly where they should head. He had also heard about a mysterious lost city in the jungle, but no one in Cusco gave credit to these comments because it was already thought that the last capital of the Incas was Choquequirao.

The expedition set off following the course of the Urubamba River, exploring series of ruins along the way. On July 23 1911, Bingham arrived at Mandor where he met the peasant farmer Melchor Arteaga who told Bingham about the existence of two Inca sites,Machu Picchu Peruand Wayna Picchu.

Arteaga was employed as the local guide, and when he located that the group would be heading for the top of the mountain, Bingham’s colleagues used various excuses to avoid accompanying him. As such, Bingham climbed only with Arteaga and Sergeant Carrasco,(who acted as interpreter for the Quechua speaking guide) first crossing the fast flowing Urubamba and then encountering the thick jungle vegetation on the other side, sometimes crawling and sometimes holding on only with their fingertips.

Sacred ValleyAfter lunch, some 600 metres above the river, they encountered a hut and some more campesinos working the agricultural terraces of Machu Picchu Peru. After a rest, Bingham decide to continue climbing, however, Arteaga decided to stay conversing with the other compassions and in his place, sent a child as a guide. As Bingham and Sergeant Carrasco climbed, they were able to ascertain more imposing terraces, but what surprised them most was a series of finely finished Inca walls that were covered by thick vegetation. The child took Bingham through bushes and bamboo to a great carved cave, finely finished that, in Bingham’s words, had to be the Royal Tomb.

Bingham returned to his country, taking with him news of the city of Machu Picchu. This discovery attracted the attention of the world and in particularly, Yale University and the National Geographic Society, both institutions decided to assist Bingham in his exploration of the discovered ruins in 1912 and 1915.
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