In the year 1911, the young explorer Hiram Bingham was

exploring the mountainous cloud forests of Peru. He was chasing a rumor that had

been circulating for many years. A rumor that an entire lost city might lie

somewhere high in the Peruvian andies in a valley known as Urubamba. Bingham

was skeptical but upon hearing a tip from a local guide he decided to climb to

the top of the precarious mountain trail and investigate. He later wrote about

how his journey unfolded. So lofty are the peaks on either side that although

the trail was frequently shadowed by dense tropical jungle many of the

mountains were capped with snow. There seemed to be little in the way of ruins

and I began to think that my time had been wasted. However the view was

magnificent. On all sides of us rose the magnificent peaks of the Urubamba

canyon while 2,000 feet below us the rushing waters of the Noisy River. Bingham

climbed a little higher, hacking through the dense forest and fighting off the

effects of altitude sickness that would often creep up on travelers in the high

passes of the Andes and soon he stumbled across something that must have made

his heart skip a beat.

Presently we found ourselves in the midst of a tropical forest beneath the shade

of whose trees we could make out a maze of ancient walls. The ruins of buildings

made of blocks of granite some of which were beautifully fitted together in the

most refined style of Inca architecture. Bingham was impressed but the more he

explored the more he realized that this was no mere scattering of ruins. A few

roads farther along we came to a little open space on which there were two

...