Inca Land: Explorations in the Highlands of Peru (National Geographic Adventure Classics)

In 1911, a young historian set out on a quest that would later be regarded as one of the most important expeditions in the history of the National Geographic Society. With breathless enthusiasm and an unquenchable thirst for adventure, Hiram Bingham followed rumor after rumor in search of a lost city, through unspoiled mountain villages and the treacherous Peruvian highlands. An experienced traveler, Bingham thought nothing of riding mules along nearly inaccessible mountain paths and scaling steep mountainsides. But nothing could have prepared him for the moment when, after crossing a rope bridge suspended 2,000 feet above a raging river and climbing a harrowing precipice, he came upon stone-faced terraces climbing up a hillside, leading to a plaza with two temples. "The sight held me spellbound," declared Bingham at the sight of the once great city. He had found Machu Picchu.

Bingham’s astonishing tale includes observations of ancient traditions and architecture as seen through the eyes of a young man fascinated by the archaeology, landscape, and history of Peru—a land and a people now lost in time. The incredible story of an amazing adventure, Inca Land is a thrilling chronicle of a legendary explorer’s crowning discovery.

HIRAM BINGHAM was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1875. After receiving a B.A. from Yale and a Ph.D. from Harvard, he sailed to South America in 1906. In 1911 he located the site of the last Inca capital and became the first person to ascend the 21,763-foot Mount Coropuma. The following year he discovered Machu Picchu. After serving in World War I, Bingham served as governor of Connecticut in 1925 and as a U.S. senator from 1925 to 1933.