Today, the Inca outpost of Machu Picchu, located on the border between the high Peruvian Andes and the Amazon Basin, is one of the most visited tourist destinations in the world. The dramatic setting and spectacular ruins continue to awe serious as well as casual visitors. It was unknown until a young American scholar, Hiram Bingham, found it in the forest 99 years ago. One of the most dramatic discoveries in the history of archaeology, Bingham’s dispatches from the site captured the imagination of the world. He was celebrated by the New York press, President Taft, and National Geographic.
Tall, handsome, and married to a wealthy Tiffany heiress, Bingham was just starting an academic career at Yale University when he traveled to Peru to search for the last places the Incas held out against the Spanish. He found several in addition to Machu Picchu. In 1912, he led a Yale expedition that excavated much of the fabled city. His dispatches to American newspapers thrilled readers hungry for tales of treasure and adventure. Before long he ran afoul of Peruvian politicians, who resented the attention the young American was receiving and the loss of their patrimony to Connecticut. Bingham also hurt his credibility buy buying smuggled artifacts for the Yale collection.
Bingham left Peru in 1915 under a dark cloud, but he went on to become an aviation pioneer, governor, and senator. Always controversial, he ended his career as a Red-baiter in the McCarthy era. Today Yale and Peru remain locked in a bitter legal battle over the artifacts Bingham brought to America a century ago. Christopher Heaney tells the story with gusto in this well-researched book. The real-life story of Hiram Bingham is as exciting as that of any Hollywood archaeologist.
