Machu Picchu

Today, Machu Picchu is recognized as a master piece of Incan architecture and one of the world's most renowned archaeological ruins. The beautiful ruins are nestled high up in the Andes and was forgotten for centuries after the jungle grew around it until explorer Hiram Bingham rediscovered it in 1911.

Bingham returned the following year with funding from Yale University to ambiguously study the site's archaeology, topography, geology, and natural life. Bingham led the Peruvian expedition between 1911-1915; the team included a geologist, bone specialist, a naturalist and several students from Yale. Bingham and his team did not use ground breaking forms of archaeology in order to excavate the site, however, he didn't just simply look for treasure. He went to extensive lengths in order to document the geography, flora, fauna, and minerals of Machu Picchu in the same way we reconstruct ancient cultures today.

Excavation in Machu Picchu continues today, not only at the ruin site but also at research labs where archaeologists and scientists work to uncover the secrets of Bingham's first excavation. Archaeologists today have discovered that 65 percent of the Incan diet relied solely on maize by studying collagen in human bones that were buried at the site. Today's archaeologists have disproved some imaginative archaeological theories made by Bingham.

Learning more about the Inca at the Machu Picchu site teaches us not only about the Inca, but ourselves as well.