“It fairly took my breath away.” – Hiram Bingham.

In the morning of July 24, 1911, Hiram Bingham III, a 35-year-old assistant professor of Latin American history at Yale University, set out to investigate reported ruins on a mountain plateau known as Machu Picchu (“old mountain”). What he found prompted him to ask, “What could this place be?”

Today, almost 100 years later, scientists are still struggling to answer that very question. According to National Geographic, “Machu Picchu appears to lie at the center of a network of related sites and trails—and many landmarks both man-made and mountainous appear to align with astronomical events like the solstice sunset. The Inca had no written language, so they left no record of why they built the site or how they used it before it was abandoned in the early 16th century.”

Located at the center of the Incan Empire, which stretched from Ecuador to Chile, Machu Picchu lies fairly close to the old Incan capital of Cusco which was replaced by Lima in 1535 by the Spanish. For an interactive, click here.

So now what? Here’s something to add to your bucket list. Trek the Salcantay Route to Machu Picchu. Each year, thousands of people take the traditional Inca Trail that leads straight to the site, but very few choose the relatively new Salcantay Route. “Winding around 20,000-foot peaks, along verdant riversides, and through bucolic coffee plantations, orchards, and thatched-hut villages, the 39-mile (63-kilometer) route traverses 15 ecosystems and tops out at over 15,000 feet (4,572 meters). The grand finale is a view of Machu Picchu from the southwest, one that few tourists see.”

This magnificent place was finally named a World Heritage Site in 1983, for being, “one of the most important archaeological sites in the world,” and is the now on the cover of National Geographic. For the feature article, click here, and the original story from 1913, here. In the meantime, keep on dreaming.

Bon Voyage,

Ryan