Photograph by Hiram Bingham 



A PART OP TPIF, OLD INCA TRAIL LEADING TO MACHU PICCHU 



In places the trail was held in position by high retaining walls. The gradient was heavy and 

 there were many long flights of stone steps (see page 448). 



head of the Huayllabamba, and then 

 down by a series of sharp zigzags into 

 the Huayruru Valley, where not a soul 

 lived and which seemed to be extraor- 

 dinarily destitute of even wild animal 

 life. It has the reputation of being ex- 

 tremely unhealthy. 



We made our way through the bottom 

 of the valley as best we could. The trail 

 disappeared for a while in a maze of 

 boulders and the remains of a fairly re- 

 cent landslide, but we could see a road 

 winding up the grassy slopes on the other 

 side of the valley. We finally made out 

 two roads and decided to take the one to 

 the right, as that appeared to lead in the 

 direction of Machu Picchu. 



WE DISCOVER MANY MORp ANCTpNT RUINS 



Half way up the mountain side, 1,500 

 or 2,000 feet above the bottom of the 

 valley, we came to a very interesting little 

 ruin, the name of which the guide, who 

 arrived a little later, told us was Runcu 



Racay. It was apparently a fortified sta- 

 tion on the old highway. 



From Runcu Racay the ancient high- 

 way led over another pass into the Ao- 

 bamba Valley. In most places the road 

 was in such condition that the mules 

 could follow it with safety, but occasion- 

 ally the poor animals would get bad falls 

 and had to be entirely unloaded and 

 helped up slippery or precipitous rocks. 

 We had not proceeded far into the Ao- 

 bamba Valley before we came to a fork 

 in the road. The left branch led by a 

 series of steps up a precipitous slope to 

 a promontory, where we found a group 

 of ruins, to which our guide gave the 

 name of Cedrobamba. This was prob- 

 ably an important fortress, since it com- 

 manded the approach to Machu Picchu. 

 It is surrounded by cliffs and is ex- 

 tremely difficult of access. 



We made a small clearing in the valley 

 near the ruins and camped here while the 

 road was being made passable for the 



447 



