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…So lofty are the peaks on either side that although the trail was frequently shadowed by dense tropical jungle, many of the mountains were capped with snow, and some of them had glaciers. There is no valley in South America that has such varied beauties and so many charms…

…Not only has it snow-capped peaks, great granite precipices, some of them 2000 feet sheer, and a dense tropical jungle, it has also many reminders of the architectural achievements of a bygone race…

…We had a hard climb; first through the jungle and later up a very stiff, almost precipitous, slope… …(until we arrived at) the top of the ridge. On all sides of us rose the magnificent peaks of the Urubamba Canon, while 2000 feet below us the rushing waters of the noisy river, making a great turn, defended three sides of the ridge, on top of which we were hunting for ruins…

…The superior character of the stone work, the presence of these splendid edifices, and of what appeared to be an unusually large number of finely constructed stone dwellings, led me to believe that Machu Picchu might prove to be the largest and most important ruin discovered in South America since the days of the Spanish conquest.

                                                                        - Hiram Bingham, Archaeologist, 1911
                                                            (Adapted from the National Geographic, 1913)

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