Hiram Bingham had come to Peru in search of Vilcapampa, the lost city of the Inca. There in front of him in the town of Cusco, he was staring at the stonework, "huge stones cut so perfectly that not even a razor blade could be slipped between them." "The Inca had no iron tools to carve them, no wheel or draft animals to move them. How had the Inca built them? It was a mystery." Bingham and his party left by mule train and headed for the "sacred valley of the Urubamba River." They climbed higher and higher into the mountains. In a jungle filled with snakes they crossesd narrow bridges and made their way through tangled thickets. At first it looked as though they had come all that way for nothing and then a young boy led them to a sun temple made of beautiful granite stones. When the vines were removed, Bigham found that he had not discovered Vilcapampa, "but a place even more amazing." "He had stumbled on Machu Picchu, a city lost in time, a city lost in the clouds." With his beautiful paintings leading us forward, Ted Lewin guides us back in time to that arduous struggle and its ultimate treasure.
Recommended by: Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com
