The Discovery of Machu Picchu

For almost 500 years Machu Picchu was abandoned and consigned to oblivion, until on July 24, 1911 it was found by Hiram Bingham, an US historian then employed as a lecturer at Yale University.

Bingham's original goal was to locate Vilcabamba, the legendary city where the descendants of the Inca aristocracy had allegedly take shelter, between 1536 and 1572, to defend against the Conquistadors.

In "The Lost City of the Incas", the book that brought Machu Picchu to the attention of the world, Bingham describes how a peasant named Melchor Arteaga told him about some important ruins at the foot of the mountain known as Machu Picchu, and subsequently lead him to the place. As the US historian inspected astonished the stone citadel, he noted down in his diary: "Would anyone believe what I have found…?".

Despite being regarded -and appreciated- as him who rescued the citadel from oblivion, Bingham has grown a controversial figure over the years. In 2002, traces of another (unknown) twentieth-century Western explorer were found, and it appears that Bingham must have attempted to eliminate these traces so as to be known as the discoverer of Machu Picchu. Simone Waisbard, a long-time researcher of Cusco, says the discovery was a mere casualty, since the first to visit the archaeological site were Enrique Palma, Gabino Sánchez and Agustín Lizárraga, who left their names engraved on one of the rocks there on July 14, 1901.

Moreover, there is a growing opinion that Bingham's activities amounted to the despoliation of Peru's cultural patrimony. Bingham took back with him hundreds -if not thousands- of archaeological artefacts: ceramics, bronze, copper and silver relics, and stone objects. These artefacts -despite the Peruvian government's longstanding requests for their return- have yet to be given back.

There isn't much consensus yet as to what the site was in terms of its place in Incan life. According to Peruvian archaeologist Luis E. Valcárcel, Machu Picchu could be Vitcos, the fortress that watched over Vilcabamba. Luis Miguel Glave and María Isabel Remy argue that is was Picho, a settlement inside the lands of Inca ruler Pachacútec. Both a centre of worship and a astronomic observatory, it was the private retreat of Pachacútec's family.

A third hypothesis suggests that the citadel was an outpost for the exploration of the Amazon highlands next to Cusco. As the population growth posed ever-increasing pressure on food supplies, the Inca authorities had to look for new fertile land in the surroundings. Therefore Machu Picchu could have been part of the Inca's search for extending the agricultural frontier.

In any case, the story of Machu Picchu remains quite a remarkable one. The mystery of its origin adds another veil of allure to the uniqueness of a citadel well hidden and protected, so much that the Spanish conquistadors missed it altogether, and Bingham only discovered it by chance.

This text includes excerpts from Wikipedia and PromPeru.

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