PHOTOGRAPHER'S JOURNAL ("Why Here?" part 2): What led the people we call Inca to build Machu Picchu in one of the most inaccessible and least visited places on the planet? Bingham was looking for Vilcabamba, the last secret refuge of the Inca's after the Spanish had conquered all Inca lands. As a place for hiding, Machu Picchu is hard to beat, surrounded by sheer cliffs east, north, and west and only accessible across a narrow, vulnerable ridge on the south. Two trails that led to that ridge are long and treacherous, the region remote. No one was going to stray here blindly or get here without being seen. That and several details from contemporary sources convinced Bingham he'd found Vilcabamba. ...
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