Retro Raunch Revisit

JUL 24, 1911: Yale University lecturer & untrained archaeologist Hiram Bingham re-discovers Machu Picchu, the 15th Century Lost City of the Incas (formerly called Vilcapampa) in the Andes mountain region of Peru where the last Incan Emporers found refuge from the Spanich conquistadors, and with most of its inhabitants having died from smallpox. The city had first been found by farmer Agustín Lizárraga in Jul 1902 and had families settled there due to the abundant fertile grounds. Between 1904-05, the families were moved on the promise of new more productive lands to leave Machu Picchu as a sacred place. Lizárraga died in Feb 1912. In 1909 after returning from a Pan-American Scientific Congress in Chile, Bingham travelled through Peru on an invitation to explore Incan ruins. In 1911, he organized an Expedition to search for the legendary capital which he thought was the city of Vitcos (Rosaspata) but later learned was Macchu Picchu which was believed to be unreachable. After the Expedition met local villagers, they were guided to a mountain top which was covered in the vegetation of thick jungle undergrowth except for cleared agricultural terraces used as vegetable gardens. Taking notes, measurements and observing stonework they moved to other locations until visitation brought them to the proper undisturbed spot. When he returned in 1912, 1914 and 1915, he was sponsored by the National Geographic Society which had played a significant role in publicizing his findings of the Lost City and its temple grounds to the world -- particularly through the magazine's 1913 special issue that published photographs such as ceremonial knives made from bronze, wooden cups, statues, pottery, jewelry, a charcoal inscription left by Lizárraga in 1902, and skeletal remains thought to be victims of human sacrifice. [Landowners had accused Bingham of stealing & smuggling the precious treasures but they had been obtained legally in accordance with an 1852 Civil Code law, and placed in a museum under the explanation of needing to be studied by experts in American institutions. Some critics argued the removals deprived Peruvian explorers of knowledge about their own history. Originally meant to be kept only 18 months, the dispute wasn't settled until Nov 2012 when the last of all the taken items was returned to Peru]. In 1916 during WWI, Bingham joined the military's Air Service. Beginning in 1922, he then entered politics and served as a Connecticut US Senator until 1933. He died in Jun 1956. In Dec 1983, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) designated Macchu Picchu a world heritage site. Today as Peru's most popular tourist attraction, it receives some 4500 visitors per day and upwards of 1.5 million every year, generating nearly $40 million annually.