Hiram Bingham (1875–1956)

FINALLY finished this book! I enjoy reading about early scientific explorations, and Bingham's search for ancient Inca cities that were mentioned in historical documents certainly qualifies. But this guy does NOT know how to tell a story. This book is a jumble of descriptions of historical records, travel preparations, natural history observations, and truly hair-raising travelogues. The difficulty in following the story was compounded by the hideously scanned electronic version from show more Google's Internet Library. If you want to read this, get your hands on a printed copy. show less

Excellent. Part history, part adventure, part anthropological study, all well-written and engaging. The introduction provides helpful context about Hiram Bingham's writing, theories, and discovery.

Bingham is a good writer, the maps are decent (could provide a bit better detail!), and he does a good job of recapitulating the story of his involvement with Machu Picchu. I just don't get archeologists and their conclusions. The just make shit up whenever they cannot figure something out. I really love his conclusion on the obsidian pebbles....they are tally stones for those bringing alpaca wool to the Chosen Women. Huh? I will never give an archeological book a superior rating, but this show more was pretty good, nevertheless.... show less

I read this book while on my own trip to Peru, following my hike up the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. I'm glad I read it, but the material is a bit dry, and his perspective writing the book is not quite accurate (this novel was written years after his trip, so some of the observations he claims to have had when first setting foot in Machu Picchu have been proven to be untrue). He also spends a lot of time describing the stone work, which I found a little dull.