Today July 24th we proudly celebrate the 110th anniversary in which Machu Picchu was unveiled by Hiram Bingham, who when he saw it for the first time could not imagine the cultural and historical magnitude that he witnessed.
For the construction of Machupicchu, the architects of the Tawantinsuyu took advantage of the tectonic faults that are in place that provided them, not only abundant stone material from the quarries that are on the site thanks to these faults, but also they served as drainage, according to a study published in Science Daily. Its architecture is in the classic Inca Imperial style, with polished stone walls that the workers of the time achieved using different techniques.
The citadel, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO as one of the New Seven Wonders of the Modern World, was never lost, the local population knew of its existence. However, after the arrival of the American adventurer and explorer Hiram Bingham, just became known in the world; He was the one who was in charge of showing and exposing Machu Picchu to Western civilization, whose prize for the explorer was to win Recognitions, fame and fortune although he was not the one who discovered it.
In 1909, the American adventurer was returning from a scientific congress held in Santiago de Chile. He later traveled to Peru to investigate the route that Simón Bolivar took, where he received an invitation to explore Choquequirao, an ancient Inca settlement located in the mountains of Cusco, and this motivated his interest in the archaeological remains of the Incas.
Bingham was not an archaeologist, but even so he organized an expedition in 1911 to enter the thick jungle of the Cusco region with the intention of finding “Vitcos”, the last lost city of the Incas. He consulted Carlos Romero, a Peruvian historian who was living in Lima at that time, for some knowledge, and thus began his expedition.
As he passed through the Urubamba river, he collected much and varied information from the local populations. After examining various Inca archaeological sites and concluding that he had not yet found Vitcos, he set up camp for him in the Mandor Pampa area. There he met with the farmer Melchor Arteaga whom he consulted if he had knowledge or information of any archaeological remains of the Incas in the area. The farmer answered affirmatively and led the explorer to the other side of the river from where they climbed towards the Huayna Picchu mountain.
Upon reaching the foothills of this mountain, they met a family that lived there. A peasant couple farming on the agricultural terraces of Machu Picchu itself, who had cleared a good part of the area four years before Bingham arrived at the site. The first walk that the explorer made through the archaeological remains of Machu Picchu was guided by a boy who was the son of the peasant couple and whose name was Pablo Riccharte. Obviously, the boy knew the site very well and was the first tour guide to guide Binghan around what years later would be considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.
110 YEARS OF MACHUPICCHU TO THE WORLD
24/07/2021 8:14 pm
Today July 24th we proudly celebrate the 110th anniversary in which Machu Picchu was unveiled by Hiram Bingham, who when he saw it for the first time could not imagine the cultural and historical magnitude that he witnessed.
For the construction of Machupicchu, the architects of the Tawantinsuyu took advantage of the tectonic faults that are in place that provided them, not only abundant stone material from the quarries that are on the site thanks to these faults, but also they served as drainage, according to a study published in Science Daily. Its architecture is in the classic Inca Imperial style, with polished stone walls that the workers of the time achieved using different techniques.
The citadel, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO as one of the New Seven Wonders of the Modern World, was never lost, the local population knew of its existence. However, after the arrival of the American adventurer and explorer Hiram Bingham, just became known in the world; He was the one who was in charge of showing and exposing Machu Picchu to Western civilization, whose prize for the explorer was to win Recognitions, fame and fortune although he was not the one who discovered it.
In 1909, the American adventurer was returning from a scientific congress held in Santiago de Chile. He later traveled to Peru to investigate the route that Simón Bolivar took, where he received an invitation to explore Choquequirao, an ancient Inca settlement located in the mountains of Cusco, and this motivated his interest in the archaeological remains of the Incas.
Bingham was not an archaeologist, but even so he organized an expedition in 1911 to enter the thick jungle of the Cusco region with the intention of finding “Vitcos”, the last lost city of the Incas. He consulted Carlos Romero, a Peruvian historian who was living in Lima at that time, for some knowledge, and thus began his expedition.
As he passed through the Urubamba river, he collected much and varied information from the local populations. After examining various Inca archaeological sites and concluding that he had not yet found Vitcos, he set up camp for him in the Mandor Pampa area. There he met with the farmer Melchor Arteaga whom he consulted if he had knowledge or information of any archaeological remains of the Incas in the area. The farmer answered affirmatively and led the explorer to the other side of the river from where they climbed towards the Huayna Picchu mountain.
Upon reaching the foothills of this mountain, they met a family that lived there. A peasant couple farming on the agricultural terraces of Machu Picchu itself, who had cleared a good part of the area four years before Bingham arrived at the site. The first walk that the explorer made through the archaeological remains of Machu Picchu was guided by a boy who was the son of the peasant couple and whose name was Pablo Riccharte. Obviously, the boy knew the site very well and was the first tour guide to guide Binghan around what years later would be considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.
TREKKING & TOURS