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—— ON THIS DAY ——
JULY 24, 1911
Cusco Region, Peru
114 years ago
Machu Picchu — the fifteenth-century Inca citadel high in the Peruvian Andes, brought to international attention by Hiram Bingham on July 24, 1911, and now one of the most recognized archaeological sites in the world.
On July 24, 1911, the American academic and explorer Hiram Bingham III, a lecturer at Yale University, was led by a local farmer named Melchor Arteaga up a steep mountain ridge in the Peruvian Andes to a site that had been overgrown by jungle for centuries. What Bingham found was a remarkably preserved complex of stone buildings, terraces, fountains, and temples — a city in the clouds at over 7,900 feet in elevation. It was Machu Picchu, the most spectacular Inca site to survive into the modern era.
The popular story that Bingham 'discovered' Machu Picchu requires important qualification. The site was well known to local Quechua people, several of whom were farming the terraces when Bingham arrived. The boy who actually led Bingham to the main ruins was Pablito Recharte, an eleven-year-old from a family living on the mountain. What Bingham did was bring the site to international scholarly and public attention, document it photographically and archaeologically, and arrange for its excavation. The site had not been 'lost' to those who lived near it; it had been unknown to the wider world.
—— MARQUEE EVENT ——
Hiram Bingham — the Yale academic and explorer whose 1911 expedition documented Machu Picchu for the outside world, though the site had never been truly 'lost' to the local population that still lived nearby.
Machu Picchu was built around 1450 CE, during the reign of the Inca emperor Pachacuti, and seems to have been abandoned about a century later — most likely during the Spanish conquest, although the Spanish themselves never found it. The site's purpose has been debated for over a century. The most widely accepted current theory is that it was a royal estate or retreat for the Inca emperor, combining residential, ceremonial, and agricultural functions. Its strategic position, sophisticated engineering, and astronomical alignments suggest it was a place of considerable importance.
The engineering of Machu Picchu is extraordinary. The walls are built of granite blocks cut and fitted so precisely that a knife blade cannot be inserted between them — without mortar, on a steep mountain ridge in an earthquake-prone region. The terraced agriculture allowed crops to be grown on slopes that would otherwise have been useless. The drainage and water management systems carried springs and rainwater through fountains throughout the site, and continue to function. The Inca built all of this without iron tools, the wheel, draft animals, or a written language.
Bingham's expedition removed an estimated 40,000 artifacts from the site, which were taken to Yale University. After nearly a century of negotiation and pressure from the Peruvian government, Yale began returning the artifacts in 2011, on the centenary of Bingham's visit — a process that took several years to complete. Machu Picchu was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 and is now one of the most visited tourist destinations in South America, receiving over a million visitors per year (in pre-pandemic years), with strict limits on access to protect the site from overuse.
—— WHY THIS MATTERS ——
Machu Picchu is the most spectacular surviving site of one of the great pre-Columbian civilizations. The Inca built one of the largest empires in history, stretching from modern Colombia to Chile, but most of their major cities were dismantled by the Spanish or built over. Machu Picchu, having escaped Spanish notice, preserves the Inca achievement in architecture and engineering more completely than any other site.
The story of its 'discovery' illustrates how Western archaeology often obscured local knowledge. The persistent characterization of Bingham as the 'discoverer' of Machu Picchu, when local people had been there continuously, reflects a broader pattern in colonial-era archaeology — and the gradual correction of that record is part of a wider reckoning with how indigenous knowledge has been treated.
The long dispute over the Yale artifacts is a key episode in the global debate about repatriating cultural heritage. Peru's successful campaign to recover the artifacts removed by Bingham — concluded in 2012 — has been cited as a model for similar repatriation efforts involving other countries and other major museums. The debate over who owns the past is still very much active.
—— THE TAKEAWAY ——
On July 24, 1911, an American academic was led up a Peruvian mountain by a local farmer to a stone city in the clouds that had never been lost to those who lived nearby. Hiram Bingham brought Machu Picchu to the world's attention. He took 40,000 artifacts with him. They were finally returned, a century later.
—— QUOTE OF THE DAY ——
"It seemed like an unbelievable dream. What could this place be?"
— Hiram Bingham, on first seeing Machu Picchu, July 24, 1911
—— OUR QUIZ OF THE DAY ——
How much do you know about Machu Picchu, the Inca civilization that built it, the local knowledge of the site before Bingham, the engineering of its terraces and walls, and the century-long dispute over the artifacts Bingham took?
