Inca Trail To Machu Picchu 1915

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Our Carriers on the Old Inca Trail to the lost city of the Incas. Photograph by Hiram Bingham 1915

The Search for Old Highways leading to Machu Picchu

The most thrilling moment in my four expeditions into the Interior of Perú was at Machu Picchu, on the 24th of July, 1911, when I first saw the Temple of the Three Windows and the Chief Palace.

In order to reach them, it had been necessary to follow an Indian guide through a dense jungle, and finally along precipices where one literally had to hold on with one’s finger nails. Clearly this was the way that the builders of Machu Picchu had approached their city. There was another path on the other side of the ridge, but this trail was also one that could hardly be conceived of as a highway to the city, for in several places it has to depend on rickety little ladders and protruding Extracted and displayed by Giancarlo Gallegos Peralta 2009 [email protected]

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roots. Later we located part of an ancient road leading back from the city up the mountain side and across the face of one of the towering precipices on Machu Picchu Mountain. It appeared to proceed in a southerly direction into a region of high mountains, deep valleys, and well-nigh impassable jungles. In 1915 it was my privilege to penetrate that unexplored country back of Machu Picchu, visit its ruins, and follow its ancient trails. The most important ruin in this region is called by the local Indians “Patallacta,” or the “City on the Hill,” at a place called Qquente, or “Hummingbird,” which was probably the largest city tributary to Machu Picchu. We spent two months executing a careful survey of the town and making small excavations in each of its houses. In no case was it necessary dig down more than a couple of feet, since what material there was lay very near the surface. This work was under the personal supervision of Mr. Elwood C. Erdis and Mr. J.J. Hasbrouck. Their task was well done. Notwithstanding the extraordinary stories circulated among the Indians of our discovering gold images and other treasures of great value, no gold of any sort was found in any of the excavations at Patallacta, Machu Picchu, or elsewhere in Perú. In the immediate vicinity of Patallacta we noticed many signs of ancient irrigating ditches, ruins of smaller villages, and occasionally ruins of well-built houses; but in no case is there anything as good as the best stone –work at Machu Picchu. The marked architectural characteristic of the Machu Picchu buildings, such as houses with gable ends, ring stones, niches, windows, projecting cylinders, and clan groups with lock-holes were well represented.

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Not far from Patallacta, in the Huayllabamba Valley, we located the remains of an old Inca road leading out of the valley in the direction of Machu Picchu. It was with mingled feeling of keen anticipation and lively curiosity that Mr. Hardy and I, with a gang of Indians bearers from Ollantaytambo, in April, 1915, set out to discover how far we could follow this ancient road. After passing through a picturesque primeval forest, we came out in the upper part of the valley on grassy slopes, where we had no difficulty in tracing the remains of the ancient highway. It led to a pass at the head of the Huayllabamba, and then down by a series of sharp zigzags into the Huayruru Valley, where not a soul lived and which seemed to be extraordinarily destitute of even wild animal life. It has the reputation of being extremely unhealthy. We made our way through the bottom of the valley as best we could. The trail disappeared for a while in a maze of boulders and the remains of a fairly recent landslide of the valley. We finally made out two roads and decided to take the one to the right, as that appeared to lead in the direction of Machu Picchu. WE DISCOVER MANY MORE ANCIENT RUINS Half way up the mountain side, 1,500 or 2,000 feet above the bottom of the valley, we came to a very interesting little ruin, the name of which the guide, who arrived a little later, told us was Runcu Racay. It was apparently a fortified station on the old highway. From Runcu Racay the ancient highway led over another pass into the Aobamba Valley. In most places the road was in such condition that the mules could follow it with safety, but occasionally the poor animals would get bad falls and had to be entirely unloaded and helped up slippery or precipitous rocks. We had not proceeded far into the Aobamba Valley before we came to fork in the road. The left branch led by a series of step up a precipitous slope to a promontory, where we found a group of ruins, to

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which our guide gave the name of Cedrobamba. This was probably an important fortress, since it commanded the approach to Machu Picchu. It is surrounded by cliffs and is extremely difficult of access. We made a small clearing in the valley near the ruins and camped here while the road was being made passable for the mules. In several places bridges had to be constructed. While the road was being opened I went on ahead with two native assistants, and was delighted to find that our trail clearly led in the direction of Machu Picchu. Pushing on in the hope of soon getting a glimpse of Machu Picchu Mountain, I stumbled on a group of ruins called “Ccorihuayrachina.” On the mountain side above the ruins a hilltop had been leveled off and a retaining wall built, so as to make it a useful signal station, or primitive fortress. Beneath it we found a huge cave. The next day, on coming around the bluff in sight of this cave, imagine our surprise and delight to see a black “spectacled” bear browsing in the shrubbery. This was the first time that any of us had ever seen an adult Peruvian bear feeding in the open. The bear was slowly working around the ridge in our direction, and in the hope of getting a near photograph of it I slipped back out of sight and climbed as fast as I could. a rapid climb at that altitude (the elevation was about 12,000 feet) is not conductive to being able to hold a camera steady when the need comes. Unfortunately the bear climbed faster than I did, and, getting to the top of the ridge, was startled by the sight of our caravan approaching. All I saw of him was a momentary glimpse of two big ears and a black snout not 50 feet away. Before I reached the top of the ridge our precious

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visitor was safety hidden in the densely wooded hillside below the crest of the ridge. Naturalist Heller, learning of our encounter with the spectacled bear, later came into this region to hunt and secured several specimens of this rare bruin. From Ccorihuayrachina the trail led along the crest of the ridge, slowly descending toward Machu Picchu Mountain, but when within rifle shot of the city suddenly disappeared; but that did not worry us, for we had actually reached the immediate neighborhood of the celebrated hidden city by what was probably the ancient highway that connected Machu Picchu with Cuzco. In addition, we had also been so fortunate as to locate a number of hitherto-unknown ruins that represent stations at convenient intervals along the road. 1

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B i ng h am H ir am . F AR THE R E XP L OR A TI ON IN TH E L AND O F T H E IN CA S . T he P e ruv i an E xpe di ti on o f 191 5 o f t he N a tio na l Ge og r aph ic S o cie ty and Y ale U niv e r s i ty . V o l. X XI X, N °.5 Wa s hing ton M ay , 1916 . P ag e s 4 45 to 448 .

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