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National Geographic : 1950 Oct
Contents
Peru, Homeland of the Warlike Inca A. Ogden Pierrot Hiram Bingham, Discoverer of Machu Picchu, Dedicates Its New Road, His Namesake Professor Bingham toiled through mountains and jungles, following history's faint clues, until he revealed the Incas' lost city in 1911. He led three National Geographic Society-Yale University expeditions uncover ing the ruins from the jungle's green grip. World War I called him away from his archeological labors; later he became a United States Senator. In 1948 he was invited to inaugurate the Carretera Hiram Bingham, a motor highway which climbs the backbreaking approach (page 452). Polygamy was the rule among the Inca nobles, who usually selected their brides from national convents called Houses of the Chosen Women of the Sun. These institutions, consecrated to the sun god, also trained ancient Peru's vestal virgins, the Chosen Women, to be handmaidens of the Inca. They wove his finest textiles and brewed his chicha beer. Such a convent city was Machu Picchu. Many people do not realize that the Inca Empire, though reduced to a shadow, sus tained its independence in a mountain retreat for 39 years after Cusco fell to Spain. Vitcos, built in haste, was the Incas' military headquarters. Vilcapampa, long established, was their sacred, templed city. According to Senator Bingham, Vilcapampa was the Inca name for Machu Picchu, a title which he gave to the ruined city in 1911 because he did not know then what else to call it. Nature's Formidable Fortress To Vilcapampa the Inca Manco took flight from conquered Cusco with his three sons, his bravest troops, his Chosen Women, and the mummies of his ancestors. The lower Urubamba Valley gave the Incas a fortress defended by some of Nature's most impregnable ramparts. The road to their kingdom crossed passes 15,000 feet high and canyons 5,000 feet deep. However, Spanish invaders finally penetrated the kingdom-in exile. They captured the last Inca, some where near Vitcos, bore him in triumph to Cusco, and put him to death, in 1572. 451
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