--- title: Machu Picchu and Hiram Bingham: What He Got Wrong description: The explorer had first reached the ancient Incan city on July 24, 1911 canonical: https://time.com/3962462/machu-picchu-hiram-bingham/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-24T11:00:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:02:25.918Z article:section: History og:title: What Hiram Bingham Got Wrong About Machu Picchu og:description: The explorer had first reached the ancient Incan city on July 24, 1911 og:url: https://time.com/3962462/machu-picchu-hiram-bingham/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt856c242657c25474/69885b6ba988ca60156b3819/150717-hiram-bingham.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Hiram Bingham 1911 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What Hiram Bingham Got Wrong About Machu Picchu twitter:description: The explorer had first reached the ancient Incan city on July 24, 1911 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt856c242657c25474/69885b6ba988ca60156b3819/150717-hiram-bingham.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What Hiram Bingham Got Wrong About Machu Picchu  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jul 24, 2015 11:00 AM UTC  Yale graduate and American explorer Hiram Bingham (1875-1956) who discovered the Machu Picchu in Peru, July 24, 1911. Yale graduate and American explorer Hiram Bingham (1875-1956) who discovered the Machu Picchu in Peru, July 24, 1911.Apic—Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jul 24, 2015 11:00 AM UTC Until the archeologist Hiram Bingham came across it on this day, July 24, in 1911, most of the world thought the ancient Incan city of Machu Picchu was lost, as was their capital Vilcabamba. As TIME [reported](http://time.com/vault/issue/1948-11-01/page/40/) in 1948, when Bingham returned to Peru to celebrate the opening of a road to the site, which would bear his name, he began by studying old charts and texts, until he was sure that there was an Incan capital city somewhere in the Andes that had never been found by the Spanish invaders. He got a key tip from a local muleteer and, upon climbing Machu Picchu peak, found the lost city hidden under vines. Of course, the very fact that the muleteer had the tip to offer means that Machu Picchu was never completely lost in the first place. It was just ignored by all but the locals who lived their lives around the site. Shortly after Bingham’s death, when a plaque was dedicated to him at the site, the magazine had cause to [revisit](http://time.com/vault/issue/1961-08-04/page/36/) the tale: --- > “” --- By Bingham’s own reckoning, the city was actual a pre-Incan fortress that eventually became a Quechua city, where the first Incan king was born. When the Spanish arrived, Bingham said, the Incas who could fled to Machu Picchu, but the empire only lasted a few more decades before the last of their kings was killed in the 16th century. Though Machu Picchu never lost its appeal to tourists, it did turn out that Bingham’s account of what had happened there wasn’t exactly true. Modern experts [argue](http://time.com/vault/issue/2003-02-24/page/48) that Machu Picchu was a mere country retreat for aristocracy—and not a major center of Incan life at all. **_Read more from 1948, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Explorer’s Return](http://time.com/vault/issue/1948-11-01/page/40/) ### Machu Picchu, 1945  The Inca Ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru, 1945. Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Square pegs along inside of roof of Machu Picchu temple were possibly used to tie on the roof beams. Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. The village pictured above was discovered in 1941 and given the name Winay Wayna, the name of a local red flower meaning Eternal Youth. Near the ruins of Machu Picchu along the Urubamba River, it housed 500 people of the supervising class, in two living levels (left and upper right) between which were about 20 terraces on which potatoes were grown. Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Magnificent cave entrance into the so-called "Princess Tower" is fitted with highly polished masonry. Fine workmanship indicates it was for royalty. Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Bath at Machu Picchu is at lower left. The "tub" is about a foot deep. The water ran down shallow channel which can be seen cutting under wall at extreme lower left. Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Trapezoidal entry doors at Incan ruins of Machu Picchu, 1945. Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The Inca Ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru, 1945. Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Princess tower at right looks straight down on the Urubamba River. The stairway at left is cut into the solid rock, all hard granite. This is at town of Machu Picchu. Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The staircase leading up the Machu Picchu, 1945. Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Intihwatana or "sun-fixing place," is a sundial. Mountaintop (upper right) shows faint remains of village. Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A view showing the temple with the altar. Partway up the hill is the sundial. Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A view showing the Temple construction at Machu Picchu, 1945. Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The train arriving in the village of Machu Picchu, where the railroad ends, 1945. 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