First Picture of Machu Picchu

In 1911, Yale University professor and explorer Hiram Bingham ventured into the mountainous jungles of central Peru in search of an ancient Incan city. While seeking the lost city
of Vilcabamba, Bingham came across Machu Picchu. Bingham later wrote that “Machu Picchu might prove to be the largest and most important ruin discovered in South America since the days of the Spanish conquest. Bingham took the first photo of Machu Picchu, but he may not have been the first Westerner to discover it. There were challenges in Bingham’s day, and a recent discovery suggests it may have been a German man named Augusto Berns, who attempted to mount an expedition to raid Incan ruins for treasure after buying a plot of land in the area. Machu Picchu is shown on one of his maps, from 1874.