Historians have uncovered documents and maps suggesting the city had been lost and found several times before the man who officially discovered the ruins, American Hiram Bingham, got there.Funded by the National Geographic Society and friends at Yale University, Mr Bingham discovered the Peruvian city of stone terraces in 1911, earning his place among the pantheon on the world's greatest explorers. LINK
The ancient city of Machu Picchu is often referred to as the ‘lost city of the Incas’ situated on a mountain ridge some 8,000ft above sea level. Built around AD 1430 the site was abandoned by the Incas due to the Spanish conquest 100years later. In 1983 Machu Picchu also became a World Heritage Site. LINK
The ruins are one of the most beautiful and enigmatic ancient sites in the world. While the Inca people certainly used the Andean mountain top, erecting hundreds of stone structures in the 1400's, legends and myths indicate that Machu Picchu (meaning 'Old Peak' in the Quechua language) was revered as a sacred place from a far earlier time. Whatever its origins, the Inca turned the site into a small but extraordinary city LINK
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