Lost City of the Incas

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 was pretty good, nevertheless....

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.

Mildly interesting account of the author's travels, exploration and discovery in Peru, early in the 20th C. Nothing beats the experience of actually visiting Machu Picchu, one of the wonders of the world, but this book provides useful background information.

The story of Machu Picchu and its builders (frontispiece)