A Lost City Is Found

It is believed by many that Machu Picchu was a royal retreat for Inca nobility in Cuzco, built during the reign of Pachacútec, a place of spiritual and ceremonial significance, or possibly the administrative center for a well-populated region. It would have been no more than a small town by Inca standards; home to less than 1,000 people at its peak. It is still a mystery as to why the Spanish never found the hidden jewel of the Andés. Some believe that it was abandoned and its memory lost even to the Amerindians of the region before the conquistadors arrived. The entire mountain masterpiece was built, settled and abandoned in less than 100 years. We may never know why.

When Yale professor of history Hiram Bingham stumbled upon the jungle covered ruins at Machu Picchu in July 1911, he was actually searching for the legendary lost city of Vilcabamba. 

Background

Hiram Bingham was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Hiram Bingham II (1831–1908), an early Protestant missionary to the Kingdom of Hawai'i. He attended O'ahu College, now known as Punahou School in Hawai'i from 1882 to 1892. He went to the United States in his teens in order to complete his education, entering Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, from which he graduated in 1894. He obtained a B.A. degree from Yale University in 1898, a degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1900, and a Ph. D. degree from Harvard University in 1905. While at Yale, Bingham was a member of Acacia Fraternity. He taught history and politics at Harvard.