jan 1, 1911 - Machu picchu "discoverd" Hiram Bingham

Description:

Machu Picchu (also spelled Machupijchu) is a site of ancient Inca ruins from the 15th century in Peru, in the Cordillera de Vilcabamba (also: Vilcapampa) of the Andes Mountains. The site’s existence was not widely known in the West until it was “discovered” in 1911 by the Yale University professor Hiram Bingham, who was led to the site by a local named Melchor Arteaga. Machu Picchu was further excavated in 1915 by Bingham, in 1934 by the Peruvian archaeologist Luis E. Valcarcel, and in 1940–41 by Paul Fejos.. Bingham was seeking the Vilcabamba, “the Lost City of Incas” from which the last Inca rulers led a rebellion against Spanish rule until 1572. Evidence suggests that Machu Picchu was a complex of the ruler Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, but when skeletons which were initially identified as female were excavated in 1912, Bingham suggested it was a sanctuary for the Virgins of the Sun - the Chosen Women, an elite Inca group. However, in the 21st century a significant portion of the skeletons were reidentified as male, and now evidence suggests that the site served as a royal retreat. In the late 1500s, Spaniards who recently gained control of the area documented that indigenous individual mentioned returning to "Huayna Picchu", the name that is believed to be originally given to the site by locals. The Spanish conquistador Baltasar de Ocampo had notes of a visit during the end of the 16th century to a mountain fortress called Pitcos with very sumptuous and majestic buildings, erected with great skill and art, all the lintels of the doors, as well the principal as the ordinary ones, being of marble, elaborately carved. Over the centuries, the surrounding jungle overgrew the site, and few outside the immediate area knew of its existence. The site may have been rediscovered and plundered in 1867 by a German businessman, Augusto Berns. Machu Picchu was designated a World Heritage site in 1983. Additional discoveries have shown that Machu Picchu was one of a series of pucaras (fortified sites), tambos (travelers’ barracks, or inns), and signal towers along the extensive Inca foot highway. The high level of preservation and the general layout of the ruin are remarkable. Its southern, eastern, and western portions are surrounded by dozens of stepped agricultural terraces formerly watered by an aqueduct system. Some of those terraces were still being used by local Indians when Bingham arrived in 1911. Walkways and thousands of steps, consisting of stone blocks as well as footholds carved into underlying rock, connect the plazas, the residential areas, the terraces, the cemetery, and the major buildings. The Main Plaza, partly divided by wide terraces, is at the north-central end of the site. At the southeastern end is the only formal entrance, which leads to the Inca Trail.
Few of Machu Picchu’s white granite structures have stonework as highly refined as that found in Cuzco, but several are worthy of note. In the southern part of the ruin is the Sacred Rock. At the other end of Machu Picchu, another path leads to the famous Inca Bridge, a rope structure that crosses the Urubamba River.
Machu Picchu is the most economically important tourist attraction in Peru, bringing in visitors from around the world.

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