Last city of the Incas

On 24 July 1911 Melchor Arteaga, a Peruvian farmer, took Hiram Bingham III to meet neighbours who lived among some old stone ruins overlooking the Urubamba river valley. The ruins were those of Machu Picchu and for many years were thought to have some mystical or sacred significance. However, archaeologists now believe the site was developed as a retreat for the Inca leader Pachacuti to escape Cuzco’s winter climate and was probably abandoned soon after his reign ended in 1471.

Pachacuti began dramatically expanding his empire around 1438, using coercion, bribery and violence to subjugate neighbouring tribes. He and his descendants built a magnificent network of key strongpoints linked by well maintained highways. But when the Spanish arrived in 1532 they found an empire weakened by epidemics and civil war. They killed the emperor, Atahualpa, and installed his younger brother Manco as a puppet emperor in Cuzco. The spectacular Inca empire had flourished for barely 100 years.

Later, disillusioned by Spanish brutality, Manco rebelled and almost defeated the Spanish near Cuzco but was forced to retreat down through the cloud forest of the eastern Andes. He built his last city near the settlement of Espiritu Pampa, from where he continued his resistance until he was killed in 1544.  

Bingham was an explorer in the Indiana Jones mould who keenly wanted to find the Inca’s last refuge. He even visited the site of Manco’s city but, since it had been smothered by jungle growth, he thought it insignificant. He preferred the breathtaking site of Machu Picchu. But, in 1964, the ruins of Manco’s city were found to be more extensive than Bingham thought and it is now recognised as the Inca’s last city.

Instead, Bingham’s achievement was to draw the world’s attention to Machu Picchu, a place that had been forgotten by almost everyone except the few people living in the Urubamba valley.