Vol. XXIX, No. 5 



WASHINGTON 



May, 1916 



FURTHER EXPLORATIONS IN THE LAND 

 OF THE INCAS 



The Peruvian Expedition of 1915 of the National 

 Geographic Society and Yale University 



By Hiram Bingham, Director of Expeditions 



IT WILL be remembered that it was 

 in 191 1 we commenced systematic 

 exploration in southern Peru, in" the 

 country made famous for American read- 

 ers by Prescott's celebrated classic, "The 

 Conquest of Peru." On that expedition, 

 which was primarily intended to search 

 for the capital of the last Inca, Blanco, 

 who had rebelled against the Spaniards 

 and fled into the most inaccessible part 

 of the Andes, we discovered a consider- 

 able number of unknown ruins in a vir- 

 tually unexplored region north of Cuzco. 

 Our most important discovery was that 

 of the wonderful city of Machu Picchu, 

 which had been lost for so many genera- 

 tions that, with the exception of a few 

 local Indians, no one in Peru was aware 

 of its existence. 



In 1912 we returned to the same coun- 

 try and spent several months at Machu 

 Picchu clearing it from the forest and 

 jungle and making such excavations as 

 were necessary in order to restore it as 

 far as possible to its original appearance, 

 except that we did not attempt to put 

 roofs on the ruins.* 



In the meantime we had also discov- 



* See "The Wonderland of Peru," with 250 

 illustrations, in the April, 1913, number of the 

 National Geographic Magazine. 



ered, through the observations of our 

 topographers, that the surrounding coun- 

 try had been previously mapped with 

 such great inaccuracy as to make the re- 

 gion between the rivers Apurimac and 

 Urubamba appear to be much smaller 

 than it was in reality. Owing to the pre- 

 cipitous nature of the mountains and the 

 profound depths of the valleys and can- 

 yons (see the illustrations, pages 480- 

 485), it was impossible for us then to 

 penetrate the highlands immediately ad- 

 jacent to Machu Picchu. We did not 

 know whether there might not be some 

 other place of equal or greater impor- 

 tance ; we were unable to state how the 

 people of Machu Picchu entered their 

 city, or whether they had highways lead- 

 ing to other parts of the country. 



In 1 9 14 a considerable part of the 

 neighboring region was mapped, some of 

 the ruins which had been first visited in 

 191 1 were surveyed, and, best of all, the 

 presence of an old Inca road leading" in 

 the direction of Machu Picchu was re- 

 ported. 



Of their queer record stones, attractive 

 pottery and bronzes, and of what we had 

 been able to discover as to the history of 

 the city by searching the ancient Spanish 

 chronicles, members of the National Geo- 



