Photograph by Hiram Bingham 

 OUR CARRIERS ON THE OLD INCA TRAIL TO THE LOST CITY OF THE) INCAS 



This trail connected the city of Machu Picchu with some of the more populous valleys 

 in the vicinity and also with the distant city of Cuzco. It was opened with great difficulty 

 by the Expedition of 1915, repaired in some places, and found to lead past several hitherto- 

 unknown groups of ruins of minor importance. 



cavations in each of its houses. In no 

 case was it necessary to dig down more 

 than a couple of feet, since what niaterial 

 there was lay very near the surface. 

 This work was under the personal super- 

 vision of Mr. Ehvood C. Erdis and Mr. 

 J. J. Hashrouck. Their task was well 

 done. 



Notwithstanding the extraordinary sto- 

 ries circulated among the Indians of our 

 discovering gold images and other treas- 

 ures of great value, no gold of any sort 

 was found in any of the excavations at 

 Patallacta, Machu Picchu, or elsewhere 

 in Peru. 



In the immediate vicinity of Patallacta 

 we noticed many signs of ancient irri- 

 gating ditches, ruins of smaller villages, 

 and occasionally ruins of well - built 

 houses ; but in no case is there anything 

 as ?ood as the best stone-work at Machu 



Picchu. The marked architectural char- 

 acteristics of the Machu Picchu build- 

 ings, such as houses with gable ends, ring 

 stones, niches, windows, projecting cyl- 

 inders, and clan groups with lock-holes 

 were well represented. 



Not far from Patallacta, in the Huayl- 

 labamba Valley, we located the remains 

 of an old Inca road leading out of the 

 valley in the direction of Machu Picchu. 

 It was with mingled feelings of keen an- 

 ticipation and lively curiosity that Mr. 

 Hardy and I, with a gang of Indian bear- 

 ers from Ollantaytambo, in April, 191 5, 

 set out to discover how far we could 

 follow this ancient road. After passing 

 through a picturesque primeval forest, 

 we came out in the upper part of the 

 valley on grassy slopes, where we had no 

 difficulty in tracing the remains of the 

 ancient highway. It led to a pass at the 



44^ 



