Machu Picchu Revisited

45:35

June 30, 2011

Tom Gjelten in for Tom Ashbook

Tackling the mystery of Machu Picchu –- one hundred years after an American explorer claimed to discover the lost Inca city.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of Yale prof Hiram Bingham III's ''discovery'' of Machu Picchu. (AP)

Machu Picchu, the ancient Inca city high in the Andes, was largely unknown to the outside world until a Yale history professor named Hiram Bingham found his way there one hundred years ago this July.

Bingham was quite the explorer: the character Indiana Jones is said to be based on him. And Mark Adams, a magazine editor who hadn’t been camping since he was a kid, was so inspired by Bingham’s adventure that he set out to recreate it, step by step.

His story, this hour On Point: Turn Right at Machu Picchu.
-Tom Gjelten

Guests:

Mark Adams, author of Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time.
Sherri Downes, Hiram Bingham's granddaughter.
Johan Reinhard, National Geographic explorer-in-residence, is also author of Machu Picchu: Exploring an Ancient Sacred Center.

More:

You can visit an exhibit featuring photos from Hiram Bingham at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, D.C. through September 11, 2011: Machu Picchu: A Lost City Uncovered Photographs from the Hiram Bingham Expeditions 1911–1915

Here are some photographs from Mark Adams from his trip to Machu Picchu.

Five things you should know about Machu Picchu.

http://youtu.be/X6c5m_wl6Rc

We'll hear two songs in hour two

"Sonido Andino" by Sol Andino
"El Condor Pasa" by Tupac Amaru

This program aired on June 30, 2011.