Machu Picchu discovered by Hiram Bingham on July 24 1911

On July 24 1911 American explorer and historian Hiram Bingham reached the Inca ruins high in the Peruvian Andes and introduced Machu Picchu to the world. While local residents and farmer Agustín Lizárraga had known of the site earlier, Bingham was the first to photograph, document and publicise the city of the Incas, sparking global interest.

The citadel was built around 1450‑1470 under Emperor Pachacútec and was abandoned before the Spanish conquest. Its stone architecture, featuring precisely cut ashlar blocks that fit without mortar, has survived centuries of earthquakes. Machu Picchu was declared a Peruvian Historical Sanctuary in 1981 and was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1983, recognized as a mixed cultural‑natural site.

Today the site attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors annually and remains a symbol of Inca engineering and the enduring allure of lost cities.