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July 24 1911 is known as the date of the "discovery"
of the famous Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, an architectural
treasure that had remained hidden for over four centuries under the
lush vegetation of the Urubamba canyon. This find was made by the
controversial American anthropologist and historian with a penchant
for archaeology (or, if you like, the explorer), Professor Hiram
Bingham of Yale University.
Although the discovery is attributed to Bingham, according to the
Cusco researcher, Simone Waisbard, the find was a chance one, since
its first discoverers were apparently Enrique Palma, Gabino Sanchez
and Agustin Lizarraga, who left their names engraved on one of the
rocks there on July 14, 1901. Moreover, the Anglo Saxon
archaeologist was really looking for the city of Vitco, the last
refuge of the Incas, and their last bastion against the Spaniards.
Thus, the importance of Bingham's discovery would lie in the
scientific diffusion of the information. However, for the
protagonist of this discovery, it was the crowning of an exhausting
research effort, based on information obtained from local peasants,
as well as on several years of traveling and exploring the area.
Before Machu Picchu was discovered, it probably formed part of the
Qollapani and Kutija estates. Over the years, the Q`ente hacienda
took possession of the property. The discoverers, Palma, Sanchez and
Lizarraga found a local indian, Anacleto Alvarez, who had been
paying a rent of twelve soles a year for farming rights on the
property during the last eight years, living there.
The owners of the fundo would never have been able to explore the
whole place, due to its sheer size, and especially because of its
jagged topography. People had, in fact, been living in Machu Picchu
without having an idea of its size nor of its importance, let alone
being able to inform the world of these things.
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