me in Arequipa not later than the first of
October for the ascent of Coropuna. With the hearty aid of Richarte
and Alvarez, the surveyors did better than I expected. In the ten days
while they were at the ruins they were able to secure data from which
Mr. Tucker afterwards prepared a map which told better than could
any words of mine the importance of this site and the necessity for
further investigation.

With the possible exception of one mining prospector, no one in Cuzco
had seen the ruins of Machu Picchu or appreciated their importance. No
one had any realization of what an extraordinary place lay on top of
the ridge. It had never been visited by any of the planters of the
lower Urubamba Valley who annually passed over the road which winds
through the canyon two thousand feet below.

It seems incredible that this citadel, less than three days' journey
from Cuzco, should have remained so long undescribed by travelers
and comparatively unknown even to the Peruvians themselves. If the
conquistadores ever saw this wonderful place, some reference to it
surely would have been made; yet nothing can be found which clearly
refers to the ruins of Machu Picchu. Just when it was first seen by a
Spanish-speaking person is uncertain. When the Count de Sartiges was
at Huadquina in 1834 he was looking for ruins; yet, although so near,
he heard of none here. From a crude scrawl on the walls of one of the
finest buildings, we learned that the ruins were visited in 1902 by
Lizarraga, lessee of the lands immediately below the bridge of San
Miguel. This is the earliest local record. Yet some one must have
visited Machu Picchu long before that; because in 1875, as has been
said, the French explorer Charles Wiener heard in Ollantaytambo of
there being ruins at "Huaina-Picchu or Matcho-Picchu." He tried to
find them. That he failed was due to there being no road through the
canyon of Torontoy and the necessity of making a wide detour through
the pass of Panticalla and the Lucumayo Valley, a route which brought
him to the Urubamba River at the bridge of Chuquichaca, twenty-five
miles below Machu Picchu.

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FIGURE

Detail of Exterior of Temple of the Three Windows, Machu Picchu
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FIGURE

Detail of Principal Temple Machu Picchu
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It was not until 1890 that the Peruvian Government, recognizing the
needs of the enterprising planters who were opening up the lower
valley of the Urubamba, decided to co