Inca Land: Explorations in the Highlands of Peru (Illustrated Edition) (Dodo Press) Illustrated edition

Hiram Bingham, formally Hiram Bingham III, (1875- 1956) was an American academic, explorer and politician. He rediscovered the Inca settlement of Machu Picchu in 1911. Later, he served as a member of the United States Senate. He taught history and politics at Harvard and then served as preceptor under Woodrow Wilson at Princeton University. In 1907, Yale University appointed Bingham III as a lecturer in South American history. He was not a trained archaeologist. Yet, it was during Bingham's time as a lecturer - later professor - at Yale that he discovered the largely forgotten Inca city of Machu Picchu. In 1908, he had served as delegate to the First Pan American Scientific Congress at Santiago, Chile. On his way home via Peru, a local prefect convinced him to visit the pre-Columbian city of Choquequirao. Bingham was thrilled by the prospect of unexplored Inca cities, and in 1911 returned to the Andes with the Yale Peruvian Expedition. He returned to Peru in 1912 and 1915 with the support of Yale and the National Geographic Society.