El Descubrimiento Mediático de Machupicchu - Archivo Histórico.

Hiram Bingham, an American history professor, became interested in finding the last Inca strongholds of Vilcabamba. July 24, 1911, is known as the "discovery" of the famous citadel of Machu Picchu, an architectural treasure that had remained hidden for more than four centuries beneath the Urubamba River. Bingham found two families living there: the Rechartes and the Álvarezes, who used the southern terraces of the ruins for farming and drank water from a still-functioning Inca canal that brought water from a spring. Bingham was deeply impressed by what he saw and secured funding from Yale University, the National Geographic Society, and the Peruvian government to immediately begin the scientific study of the site. With the help of engineer Ellwood Erdis, osteologist George Eaton, Toribio Recharte, Anacleto Alvarez, and a group of anonymous local workers, Bingham directed archaeological work at Machu Picchu from 1912 to 1915. During this period, the undergrowth was cleared and Inca tombs were excavated outside the city walls. Machu Picchu's "public life" began in 1913 with the publication of his findings in an article in National Geographic magazine. Although Bingham is not recognized as the discoverer of Machu Picchu, he deserves credit for being the first person to acknowledge the importance of the ruins, studying them with a multidisciplinary team and disseminating his findings. The built-up area of ​​Machu Picchu measures 530 meters long by 200 meters wide and includes at least 172 structures. The complex is clearly divided into two main areas: the agricultural zone, consisting of sets of terraced fields, located to the south; and the urban zone, which is, of course, where its inhabitants lived and where the main civil and religious activities took place. These two zones are separated by a wall, a ditch, and a stairway, elements that run parallel along the eastern slope of the mountain. sup 63 /sup A significant portion of the ruins visible today are actually recent reconstructions, as can be seen by comparing photographs taken in the 1910s with current ones.