The Machu Picchu Guidebook: A Self-Guided Tour

Whether you have three hours or three days at Machu Picchu, this guidebook will help you see things of significance that otherwise might just blend in with the overall grand impressions of this magical place. Built in the mid-fifteenth centruy by Incan royalty and "rediscovered" by Hiram Bingham in 1911, Machu Picchu is the stuff of legends. The authors offer an almost step-by-step tour, constantly guiding the traveler to understand key elements of the function and construction of these remarkably well-designed, well-built, and well-preserved ruins. A full-color foldout map along with some 150 illustrations, many of them in full color as well, will make this the indispensable guide. No traveler should go to Machu Picchu without this superb little book.

Ruth M. Wright wove a twenty-five-year fascination with Machu Picchu into an authorized investigation when she and her husband, Ken Wright author of recently published "Machu Picchu: A Civil Engineering Marvel," were granted a permit in 1994 from the Peruvian National Institute of Culture to study the site. The Wrights live in Boulder, Colorado. <P><P>Alfredo Valencia Zegarra is a professor in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Cusco and a registered professional archaeologist with the Peruvian National Institute of Culture. He spent several years as the resident archaeologist at Machu Picchu.