Photos from the book
most of the photographs in the book were taken by Hiram Bingham
Hiram Bingham at his tent door near Machu Picchu. The story of Hiram Bingham and his discovery of Machu Picchu is the stuff of Hollywood movie scripts and our most romantic notions of the life of an archaeologist. In fact, it is probably no coincidence that the hat you see here on Bingham's head is almost identical to the one made famous by that most romantic of archaeologists, Indiana Jones, in the film Raiders of the Lost Ark.
"The bridge was a primitive structure made of a few logs lashed together. Arteaga and the soldier took off their shoes for better footing, but Bingham, unwilling to go barefoot, crawled across on hands and knees."
"It was only fifteen days since Bingham's discovery of Machu Picchu. What he now saw and identified was the remains of the last Inca capital. ... He identified the place as Vitcos, where the fleeing Inca ruler had set up his court after the failure of his attempt to retake Cuzco."
