Page 79 - Joe and Laurie's Anniversary Cruise

To this day, we still do not exactly understand how the Inca managed to
move and place such large stones with such precision.

It was so well camouflaged that the Spanish Conquistadors thankfully
never found Machu Picchu.

Nonetheless, the city was abandoned during the second half of the 16th
century, most likely due to the outbreak of small pox. Not much is
known about the city from this period up until its rediscovery by a Yale
professor, Hiram Bingham, in 1911.

In 1910, an American, Alberto A. Giesecke, became rector of the
National University of Cuzco and supported any initiative related to
archeology. In 1911 he visited the farm "Echarati," in the then region of
Mandor, owned by Don Braulio Polo and heard that in his property
existed diverse old constructions covered with vegetation and that
among them stood a few ruins in a place called Machupicchu by the
local inhabitants.

Back in Cuzco, Alberto Giesecke
wrote to Hiram Bingham about
these references. That year
Bingham arrived in Peru with the
aim of doing research in geology
and botany and looking for
Vilcabamba (capital of the
descendants of the Incas) who
had heard in local histories.

On July 23, 1911 Bingham went to Mandor with Sargento Carrasco y
Pablito Alvarez from the Peruvian army who was assigned to accompany
him by order of the mayor of Cuzco. On July 24, 1911, Bingham and
Alvarez arrived in Machu Picchu.

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