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The World’s Most Impressive Fakes, Forgeries, and Finds that Made History

Khalid Elhassan December 23, 2022 33 min

Machu Picchu Was Discovered by Accident

In 1875, American missionary parents in Hawaii welcomed to the world a new son, Hiram Bingham. As a child, he wanted to follow in his parents’ footsteps. As he grew up, however, Bingham realized that a missionary’s life was not for him: he liked football and outdoors activities far more than he liked Bible studies. Eventually, he went to Yale, then studied for a PhD in Harvard. Bingham hit the jackpot when he met, wooed, and married, the heiress to the Tiffany Jewelry fortune – a marriage that dismayed her parents. His wife’s money allowed him to indulge his passion for travel and exploration, and he took full advantage of that.

A photo of Machu Picchu, taken by Hiram Bingham in 1912. National Geographic Society

The history of the Inca Empire fascinated Bingham, and in 1911, he led an archaeological expedition in Peru. He wanted to find the lost city of Vilcabamba, the last refuge of Inca Manco Capac, who resisted the Spaniards into the 1530s. As he explored some ruins near Cuzco, however, he ran into a local farmer who told him there were more ruins up a nearby mountain. Bingham and his team walked and rode mules to the mountain top, where they discovered Machu Picchu. It had remained largely untouched throughout Peru’s Spanish colonial period. Today, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.