Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1914-01-23
LOST CITY OF INCAS A WONDER
Full RUIN.
Prof. Bingham Tells How He Dis
covered it on Top of the Andes.

Inc recently discovered city OF Machu
Picchu, the cradle of the ancient empire
of the Incas, on top of the Peruvian
Andes, is expected to prove the largest
and most important ruin discovered in
South America since the days of the |
Spanish conquest, according to a pre-
liminary report filed with the National
Geographic Society by Prof. Hiram
Bingham of Yale.
Prof. Bingham is the director of the |
expedition sent into Peru under the joint |
auspices of the Ma :ional Geographic So
ciety and Yale University. In his ie-
port he says that the City of Machu
Picchu which is perched on the very top
of the Andes, where it remained I'M
discovered by the civilized world for
centuries, is not only larger and con-
tains more edifices than any other ruin
discovered in Peru, except Cuzco, but
it has the additional advantage from an
archaeological viewpoint of not having
been occupied by descendants, which
accounts for the city not having been
torn to pieces by treasure hunters.
But for the accidental meeting with
Peruvian Indian the discovery would
not have been made. Prof. Bingham
tells of having come across the Indian,
who was selling food and pasturage for
horses to travellers, on the mountain
trail six days out from Cusco. The
Indian, when questioned, said he be-
lieved there were signs of ruins on the
top of the high and almost inaccessible
precipice nearby and offered to act as
guide if he were well paid. His idea
of proper pay was fifty cents. Prof.
Bingham became interested and took
the Indian at his word A few hours
afterward the ruins were discovered.
Their Importance was not fully realized,
however, until weeks later, when eX-
tensive excavations were in progress.
The report continues:
The fact that one of the most i'm
portant buildings was marked by three
large Windows-a rare feature in Peru
Wan architecture and that many of
the other buildings had windows added
to the significant circums tances that the
city was located in the most inacces-
sibe part of the Andes, inclined me to
feel that there was chance that Machu
Picchu might prove to be Tampus Tocco,
that mythical place from which the
Incas had come when they started out to
found Cuzco and to make the beginnings
or that great empire which was to EN-.
brace large part of South America.
According to the old legend, the Incas
became crowded in their mountain
home, to which they had been driven by
barbarian hordes, and eventually re-
covering their military strength, they
left Tampu Tocco under the leadership
of three brothers, going out OF
three windows, and started fol
Cuzco. The presence at Machu OF
three large windows in one of The most
conspicuous and best built structures
led me to wonder whether it might moi
be possible that the Incas had purposely
deceived the Spaniards in telling then
Tampa Tocco was southwest of Cuzco
when it was actually north.
Across the ridge, and defending thu
builders from attack on the side of thu
main mountain range, they constructed
an extensive series of agricultural ter
, races. Between these and the city is
steep, dry moat and the inner wall
When the members of an attacking
party had safely negotiated the precipi
E tous and easily defended sides of tn
n oat, they would still find themselve
, outside the inner defences of the city
o which consisted of wall from fifteel
> to twenty feet high, composed of hug
boulders, many of which weighed man,
= tons.
Machu Picchu is essentially a city o
refuge. 1t is perched on a mountain
top in the most inaccessible corner O
the most inaccessible section of tn
Urrumba River. So far as | know Their
is no part of the Andes that has bee
better defended by nature. Here on
narrow ridge, fanked on all sides b
S precipitous or nearly precipitous slopes
e highly civilized people artistic, in
: ventive and capable of sustained en-
:. deavor-at some time in the remot
e past built themselves city of refuge
8 Since they had no iron or steel tools
only stone hammers-its constructio
: must have cost many generations,
l. not centuries of effort.
u 1t is not very profitable to speculat
J. on the habits of these ancient peopl
5 until we have had more opportunity t
i study the finds made in the burial cave
n and to compare these with finds mao
&c in otbar ,ar+r Of Dow, W. l,,,o,,, a.,