Peru: The Lost City

Something hidden. Go and find it. go and look behind the ranges — some thing lost behind the ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go!

—Rudyard Kipling, The Explorer

For archaeologists in Peru, that hidden something has always been the lost city of Vilcabamba, the last great capital of the Incas. As described in the 16th century chronicles, Vilcabamba was believed located somewhere in the southern Peruvian Andes. There, for nearly four decades, some 4,000 Indians lived, waged sporadic war on the Spaniards, and built great palaces and temples. Then in 1572, after the Spanish killed the last Inca ruler, the Indians apparently deserted their capital, and Vilcabamba disappeared beneath the jungle.

In 1911 famed Archaeologist and Yale Scholar Hiram Bingham first thought he had found Vilcabamba when he discovered the spectacular ruins at Machu Picchu. But most people agreed that Vilcabamba was still out there. Now, another exploration party thinks that it has finally found the lost city behind the ranges. Until the area is excavated and the preliminary findings confirmed, no one can be certain. But throughout the U.S. and Latin America last week, archaeologists were eagerly watching—and hoping.

Strangers Beware. The expedition leader was Gene Savoy, a 37-year-old explorer from Portland, Ore. For five years, Savoy has been tramping the Peruvian Andes, turning up everything from three pre-Inca cities to a 100-ft.-wide pre-Inca highway. In 1963 he joined forces with Peruvian Explorer Antonio Santander Cascelli, 62, and together they started hunting for Vilcabamba. Old records seemed to point to a forbidding area northwest of Machu Picchu, called the Plain of the Spirits.

Six weeks ago, Savoy and Santander reached the Plain of the Spirits by mule team and made contact with some local Indians. At first, the Indians refused to guide them. Tribal legend said that anyone who escorted strangers into the plain would soon die. But after some powerful persuasion, the Indians agreed to join the expedition. They led Savoy and Santander on a three-day march through the jungle to the first moss-covered ruins of what may be Vilcabamba. “We couldn’t believe our eyes,” says Savoy. “Each day, it became more fantastic.”

Tiles & Horseshoe. The ruins, says Savoy, cover some 6 to 10 sq. mi. and stretch across three succeeding plateaus. The first plateau—roughly four times the size of Machu Picchu—begins at about 4,500 ft.; the second is at 5,500 ft., and the last, poking eerily up through a misty halo of clouds, may reach as high as 12,000 or 13,000 ft.

On the first plateau, Savoy and Santander found a luxurious palace and at least 16 separate communities—built mostly of granite and limestone, and complete with fountains, gardens, courtyards, large terraced dwellings apparently used by Inca nobles, and 100 or so squat circular huts that probably housed lower-class Indians. True to archaeological expectations, a strong Spanish influence was evident—the result, old records suggest, of seven Spanish turncoats who came to live in the Inca capital. In the palace were two rooms with a Spanish-style connecting doorway rather than the single courtyard entryway that typifies pure Incan architecture. Savoy also found several Spanish-type tiles and a Spanish horseshoe.

Time to Leave. Savoy and Santander spent two weeks exploring the first plateau, made a quick survey of the second. Then their increasingly frightened Indian helpers started deserting. “Normally, they would be friendly and smiling,” says Savoy. “But when we got them into those woods, they changed.” On the 15th day, Savoy hurt his leg dodging a falling tree cut by one of the Indians. He decided to pull out. “We thought it was better to come back with pictures and maps than not get back at all.”

In Lima, Savoy’s find created the greatest stir among archaeologists since the discovery of Machu Picchu. “Although we have yet to explore the ruins carefully,” said Dr. Luis E. Valcarcel, director of the National Museum of History, “I am almost certain this is Vilcabamba.” Peru’s President Fernando Belaunde Terry, himself an ardent amateur archaeologist, chatted with Savoy about possible government help for a full-scale return expedition.

“The city has been rumored to exist for so long that it had almost passed from history to myth,” said Savoy.

“Now we have turned it back to history.”