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.

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.