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DA MT. EVEREST

The official altitude of the world's highest peak is 29,029 feet (8,848m). However, the National Geographic Society has determined the height to be 6 feet taller, 29,035 feet, but the Nepali government has not yet been made this new altitude official.

Shifting tectonic plates continue to push Everest upward, along with the whole Himalaya mountain range, at 1.6 to 3.9 inches (4 to 10 centimeters) per year.
Where is Mt. Everest?
Everest is part of the Himalaya mountain range along the border of Nepal and Tibet. It is located 27° 59' North latitude, 86° 55' East longitude.
Why is it called Everest?
In 1841, Sir George Everest, Surveyor General of India from 1830 to 1843, first recorded the location of Everest. It was subsequently named "Peak XV". In 1865, it was renamed Mt. Everest to honor Sir George.
Everest is also called Chomolungma in Tibet and Sagarmatha in Nepal.
Is it windy at the top of Everest?
Yes. Blowing with the strength of a hurricane at 118+ miles/hour, the Jet Stream blasts the rocky, icy summit of Everest nearly all year long. The Jet Stream is a constant wind force at 4 - 6 miles above the earth. Observers can tell when the Jet Stream is blowing on the summit of Everest from the long while stream of ice crystals extending out from the tip of the mountain. Those wishing to actually stand on the summit have to choose their moment carefully: the mountain is most inviting in early May, when the Jet Stream is pushed northward over Tibet by the arrival of the monsoon. There is also a window of opportunity in the Fall when the Jet Stream is again pushed northward.
Is the air very thin on Everest?
As the altitude increases, the oxygen content of the air decreases dramatically. At 9,800 feet, for example, there's about 2/3 of the oxygen in the air than at sea level. At 20,000 ft, there is roughly half the oxygen content in the air. At 29,035ft, the summit of Everest, there is only a third of the oxygen in the air.
How does your body get used to the altitude?
Mountaineers climbing Everest establish a camp at the base of the mountain, and four higher camps before reaching the summit. For the next 30 days or so, they will move up, then down again, allowing their bodies to get used to the reduced oxygen content of the air. This process is called acclimatization.
Acclimatizing properly is essential to safely ascend to high altitudes. Climbers acclimatize by ascending slowly, resting one day for every 1,000 feet they climb in one day. They drink plenty of liquids and eat healthy food. They also practice a rule of thumb: climb high, sleep low. Climbing high, then descending to lower altitudes allows the body to build up and gain strength with fresh oxygen, digest food better, get sounder sleep and any wounds can heal and they'll feel much stronger by descending. It was also allow them to build up their bodies, worn from the low O2 content, with fresh oxygen.

Some climbers don't like to go down, but the significant benefits on the body from staying at lower altitudes make it worth it. It's important that the climbers don't stay down too long because it's possible to lose some acclimatization in the process.

2. DA HANGING GARDEN

The city of Babylon, under King Nebuchadnezzar II, must have been a wonder to the ancient traveler's eyes. "In addition to its size," wrote Herodotus, a Greek historian in 450 BC, "Babylon surpasses in splendor any city in the known world."

Herodotus claimed the outer walls were 56 miles in length, 80 feet thick and 320 feet high. Wide enough, he said, to allow two four-horse chariots to pass each other. The city also had inner walls which were "not so thick as the first, but hardly less strong." Inside these double walls were fortresses and temples containing immense statues of solid gold. Rising above the city was the famous Tower of Babel, a temple to the god Marduk, that seemed to reach to the heavens.

Seven Quick Facts

Location: City State of Babylon (Modern Iraq)

Built: Around 600 BC

Function: Royal Gardens

Destroyed: Earthquake, 2nd Century BC

Size: Height probably 80 ft. (24m)

Made of: Mud brick waterproofed with lead.

Other: Only wonder whose archaeological remains cannot be verified.

While archaeological excavations have disputed some of Herodotus's claims (the outer walls seem to be only 10 miles long and not nearly as high) his narrative does give us a sense of how awesome the features of the city appeared to those ancients that visited it. Strangely, however, one of the city's most spectacular sites is not even mentioned by Herodotus: The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Gift for A Homesick Wife

Accounts indicate that the garden was built by King Nebuchadnezzar, who ruled the city for 43 years starting in 605 BC (There is an alternative story that the gardens were built by the Assyrian Queen Semiramis during her five year reign starting in 810 BC). This was the height of the city's power and influence and King Nebuchadnezzar is known to have constructed an astonishing array of temples, streets, palaces and walls.

According to accounts, the gardens were built to cheer up Nebuchadnezzar's homesick wife, Amyitis. Amyitis, daughter of the king of the Medes, was married to Nebuchadnezzar to create an alliance between the two nations. The land she came from, though, was green, rugged and mountainous, and she found the flat, sun-baked terrain of Mesopotamia depressing. The king decided to relieve her depression by recreating her homeland through the building of an artificial mountain with rooftop gardens.

The Hanging Gardens were said to have been built to please King Nebuchadnezzar's wife, Amyitis.

The Hanging Gardens probably did not really "hang" in the sense of being suspended from cables or ropes. The name comes from an inexact translation of the Greek word kremastos, or the Latin word pensilis, which means not just "hanging", but "overhanging" as in the case of a terrace or balcony.

The Greek geographer Strabo, who described the gardens in first century BC, wrote, "It consists of vaulted terraces raised one above another, and resting upon cube-shaped pillars. These are hollow and filled with earth to allow trees of the largest size to be planted. The pillars, the vaults, and terraces are constructed of baked brick and asphalt."

"The ascent to the highest story is by stairs, and at their side are water engines, by means of which persons, appointed expressly for the purpose, are continually employed in raising water from the Euphrates into the garden."

3.DA TAJ MAHAL

The Taj Mahal of Agra is one of the Seven Wonders of the World, for reasons more than just looking magnificent. It's the history of Taj Mahal that adds a soul to its magnificence: a soul that is filled with love, loss, remorse, and love again. Because if it was not for love, the world would have been robbed of a fine example upon which people base their relationships. An example of how deeply a man loved his wife, that even after she remained but a memory, he made sure that this memory would never fade away. This man was the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, who was head-over-heels in love with Mumtaz Mahal, his dear wife. She was a Muslim Persian princess (her name Arjumand Banu Begum before marriage) and he was the son of the Mughal Emperor Jehangir and grandson of Akbar the Great. It was at the age of 14 that he met Mumtaz and fell in love with her. Five years later in the year 1612, they got married.

Mumtaz Mahal, an inseparable companion of Shah Jahan, died in 1631, while giving birth to their 14th child. It was in the memory of his beloved wife that Shah Jahan built a magnificent monument as a tribute to her, which we today know as the "Taj Mahal". The construction of Taj Mahal started in the year 1631. Masons, stonecutters, inlayers, carvers, painters, calligraphers, dome-builders and other artisans were requisitioned from the whole of the empire and also from Central Asia and Iran, and it took approximately 22 years to build what we see today. An epitome of love, it made use of the services of 22,000 laborers and 1,000 elephants. The monument was built entirely out of white marble, which was brought in from all over India and central Asia. After an expenditure of approximately 32 million rupees (approx US $68000), Taj Mahal was finally completed in the year 1653.

It was soon after the completion of Taj Mahal that Shah Jahan was deposed by his own son Aurangzeb and was put under house arrest at nearby Agra Fort. Shah Jahan, himself also, lies entombed in this mausoleum along with his wife. Moving further down the history, it was at the end of the 19th century that British Viceroy Lord Curzon ordered a sweeping restoration project, which was completed in 1908, as a measure to restore what was lost during the Indian rebellion of 1857: Taj being blemished by British soldiers and government officials who also deprived the monument of its immaculate beauty by chiseling out precious stones and lapis lazuli from its walls. Also, the British style lawns that we see today adding on to the beauty of Taj were remodeled around the same time. Despite prevailing controversies, past and present threats from Indo-Pak war and environmental pollution, this epitome of love continuous to shine and attract people from all over the world.

4. DA GREATWALL
The history of the Great Wall is said to start from the Spring and Autumn Periods when seven powerful states appeared at the same time. In order to defend themselves, they all built walls and stationed troops on the borders. At that time, the total length of the wall had already reached 3,107 miles, belonging to different states.

In 221 BC, the Emperor Qin absorbed the other six states and set up the first unified kingdom in Chinese history. In order to strengthen his newly born authority and defend the Huns in the north, he ordered connecting the walls once built by the other states as well as adding some sections of his own. Thus was formed the long Qin's Great Wall which started from the east of today's Liaoning Province and ended at Lintao, Gansu Province.

In the Western Han Dynasty, the Huns became more powerful. The Han court started to build more walls on a larger scale in order to consolidate the frontier. In the west, the wall along the Hexi corridor, Yumenguan Pass, and Yangguan Pass was built. In the north, Yanmenguan Pass and Niangziguan Pass in Shanxi were set up. Many more sections of the wall extended to Yinshan Mountain and half of the ancient Silk Road was along the Han's wall.

The Northern Wei, Northern Qi and Northern Zhou Dynasties all built their own sections but on a smaller scale than the walls in the Han Dynasty. The powerful Tang Dynasty saw peace between the northern tribes and central China most of the time, so few Great Wall sections were built in this period.

Great Wall of Qin Dynasty on Yinshan
Mountain, Guyang County, Inner Mongolia

Great Wall of Han Dynasty,
Dunhuang, Gansu

The Ming Dynasty is the peak of wall building in Chinese history. The Ming suffered a lot by disturbances from minority tribes such as the Dadan, Tufan and Nuzhen. The Ming court from its first emperor to the last ceaselessly built walls in the north. The main line started from Jiuliancheng near the Yalu River in the east to the Jiayuguan Pass in the west and measured over 4,600 miles. Besides adding many more miles of its own, the Ming emperors ordered enlargement of the walls of previous dynasties into double-line or multi-line walls. For example, out of Yanmenguan Pass were added three big stone walls and 23 small stone walls. Eleven Garrisons were distributed along the main line of the wall. The countless walls, fortresses, and watch towers made the country strongly fortified. In the early Qing Dynasty, some sections of the walls were repaired and several sections were extended. This great engineering work stopped in the middle of the Qing Dynasty.

Great Wall of Northern Dynasties
to Sui Dynasty in Ningwu County, Shanxi

Badaling Great Wall of
Ming Dynasty, Beijing

Owing to its long history, natural disasters and human activities, many sections of the Great Wall are severely damaged and disappearing. Being a world-famous engineering project and witness to the rise and fall of Chinese history, the Great Wall, needs us to take immediate action to protect it!
5. DA PYRAMID

The Great Pyramid and its surrounding complex soon after its completion (Copyright Lee Krystek, 2010)

It's 756 feet long on each side, 450 feet high and is composed of 2,300,000 blocks of stone, each averaging 2 1/2 tons in weight. Despite the makers' limited surveying tools, no side is more than 8 inches different in length than another, and the whole structure is perfectly oriented to the points of the compass. Even in the 19th century, it was the tallest building in the world and, at the age of 4,500 years, it is the only one of the famous "Seven Wonders of the Ancient World" that still stands. Even today it remains the most massive building on Earth. It is the Great Pyramid of Khufu, at Giza, Egypt.

Seven Quick Facts

Location: Giza, Egypt

Built: Around 2560 BC

Function: Tomb of Pharoah Khufu

Destroyed: Still stands today.

Size: Height 480 ft. (146m)

Made of: Mostly limestone

Other: Tallest building in the world till 1311 AD and again from 1647 to 1874.

Some of the earliest history of the Pyramid comes from a Greek the historian and traveler Herodotus of Halicanassus. He visited Egypt around 450 BC and included a description of the Great Pyramid in a history book he wrote. Herodotus was told by his Egyptian guides that it took twenty years for a force of 100,000 oppressed slaves to build the pyramid (with another 10 years to build a stone causeway that connected it to a temple in the valley below). Stones were lifted into position by the use of immense machines. The purpose of the structure, according to Herodotus's sources, was as a tomb for the Pharaoh Khufu (whom the Greeks referred to as Cheops).

Herodotus, a Greek from the democratic city of Athens, probably found the idea of a single man employing such staggering wealth and effort on his tomb an incredible act of egotism. He reported that even thousands of years later the Egyptians still hated Khufu for the burden he had placed on the people and could hardly bring themselves to speak his name.

The three large pyramids at Giza: From left to right, Menkaure, Khafre, Khufu. The far pyramid is the "Great Pyramid" and the largest structure on the site. The middle one may look larger, but only because it is built on higher ground.

However, Khufu's contemporary Egyptian subjects may have seen the great pyramid in a different light. To them the pharaoh was not just a king, but a living god who linked their lives with those of the immortals. The pyramid, as an eternal tomb for the pharaoh's body, may have offered the people reassurance of his continuing influence with the gods. The pyramid wasn't just a symbol of regal power, but a visible link between earth and heaven.

Indeed, many of the stories Herodotus relates to us are probably false. Engineers calculate that fewer men and less years were needed than Herodotus suggests to build the structure. It also seems unlikely that slaves or complicated machines were needed for the pyramid's construction. It isn't surprising that the Greek historian got it wrong, however. By the time he visited the site, the structure was already 20 centuries old, and much of the truth about it was shrouded in the mists of history.

Certainly the idea that it was a tomb for a Pharaoh, though, seems in line with Egyptian practices. For many centuries before and after the construction of the Great Pyramid, the Egyptians had interned their dead Pharaoh-Kings, whom they believed to be living Gods, in intricate tombs. Some were above-ground structures, like the pyramid, others were cut in the rock underground. All the dead leaders were outfitted with the many things it was believed they would need in the afterlife to come. Many were buried with untold treasures.

The Pyramid Complex

The Giza complex as it looked in 1904 from Eduard Spelterini's balloon.

If we were to visit the location of the great pyramid when it was just finished, it would look very different than we see it today. Originally, the pyramid itself was encased in highly polished white limestone with a smooth surface which is now gone. At the very top of the structure would have been a capstone, which is also now missing. Some sources suggest that the capstone might have been sheathed in gold. Between the white limestone and the golden cap the pyramid would have made an impressive sight shining in the bright Egyptian sun.

Around the base of the great pyramid were four smaller pyramids, three of which still stand today. On the east side of the pyramid stood a now missing Funerary temple. Running down the hill into the valley was a stone causeway, which linked the Funerary temple with a temple in the valley. Around the pyramid were six boat shaped pits that may have contained the hulls of vessels that belonged to the pharaoh. Parts of one of these have been found and reconstructed into a 147 foot long boat that today is enclosed next to the pyramid in its own museum.

The other two large pyramids at Giza, the Pyramid of Khafre (Khufu's son) and the Pyramid of Menkaure had not yet been built, so the Khufu's pyramid and its associated structures stood alone, though surrounded by the dwelling places and the graves of many of those that helped construct it.

A cross-section of the Great Pyramid showing the passageways. (Copyright Lee Krystek 1997)

Opening the Pyramid

Even in ancient times, thieves breaking into the sacred burial places were a major problem and Egyptian architects became adept at designing solutions to this problem. They built passageways that could be plugged with impassable granite blocks; created secret, hidden rooms and made decoy chambers. No matter how clever the designers became, however, robbers seemed to be even smarter and with almost no exceptions, each of the great tombs of the Egyptian Kings was plundered.

In 820 A.D. the Arab Caliph Abdullah Al Manum decided to make his own search for the treasure of Khufu. He gathered a gang of workmen and, unable to find the location of a reputed secret door, started burrowing into the side of the monument. After a hundred feet of hard going they were about to give up when they heard a heavy thud echo through the interior of the pyramid. Digging in the direction of the sound, they soon came upon a passageway that descended into the heart of the structure. On the floor lay a large block that had fallen from the ceiling, apparently causing the noise they had heard. Back at the beginning of the corridor they found the secret hinged door to the outside they had missed.

Working their way down the passage they soon found themselves deep in the natural stone below the pyramid. The corridor stopped descending and went horizontal for about 50 feet, then ended in a blank wall. A pit extended downward from there for about 30 feet, but it was empty. When the workmen examined the fallen block they noticed a large granite plug above it. Cutting through the softer stone around it they found another passageway that extended up into the heart of the pyramid. As they followed this corridor upward, they found several more granite blocks closing off the tunnel. In each case they cut around them by burrowing through the softer limestone of the walls. Finally, they found themselves in a low, horizontal passage that led to a small, square, empty room. This became known as the "Queen's Chamber," though it seems unlikely that it ever served that function.

The secret entrance missed by the Caliph's men when searching for treasure. (Courtesy Olaf Tausch and Wikipedia Creative Commons).

Back at the junction of the ascending and descending passageways, the workers noticed an open space in the ceiling. Climbing up they found themselves in a high-roofed, ascending passageway. This became known as the "Grand Gallery." At the top of the gallery was a low, horizontal passage that led to a large room, some 34 feet long, 17 feet wide, and 19 feet high. It became known as the "King's Chamber." In the center was a huge granite sarcophagus without a lid. Otherwise the room was completely empty.

The Missing Treasure

The Arabs, as if in revenge for the missing treasure, stripped the pyramid of its fine white limestone casing and used it for building in Cairo. They even attempted to disassemble the great pyramid itself, but after removing the top 30 feet of stone, they gave up on this impossible task.

So what happened to the treasure of King Khufu? Conventional wisdom says that, like so many other royal tombs, the pyramid was the victim of robbers in ancient times. If we believe the accounts of Manum's men, though, the granite plugs that blocked the passageways were still in place when they entered the tomb. How did the thieves get in and out?

In 1638 an English mathematician, John Greaves, visited the pyramid. He discovered a narrow shaft, hidden in the wall that connected the Grand Gallery with the descending passage. Both ends were tightly sealed and the bottom was blocked with debris. Some archaeologists have suggested this route was used by the last of the Pharaoh's men to exit the tomb after the granite plugs had been put in place and by the thieves to get inside. Given the small size of the passageway and the amount of debris it seems unlikely that the massive amount of treasure, including the huge missing sarcophagus lid, could have been removed this way, however.

Construction

Scientists have long argued about how this massive structure was built, but the most likely theory seems to be that the Egyptians built a huge ramp that allowed them to drag the blocks into position. Because a single straight ramp (as seen in the recent movie 10,000B.C.) would have to be over a half mile long to reach the top and would need to contain as much material as the pyramid itself, engineers have suggested that the ramp was in the shape of a spiral running around the outside of the pyramid. Alternately the Egyptians may have combined a straight ramp that ran part way up the pyramid with a spiral ramp to the very top levels. Blocks were probably dragged up the ramp by a team of men and put into their final position through the use of levers (For more information on the construction of the Great Pyramid, see our page How to Build a Pyramid).

French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin advanced the theory that a spiral ramp was used on the inside of the pyramid to move the stone blocks. According to Houdin a straight external ramp was used to get materials to the 140 foot level. From there workers dragged the stones through a set of gently rising tunnels just inside the outer walls. The last tunnel would exit on the monument's top. A 1986 microgravity survey of the pyramid discovered a peculiar anomaly: a less-dense structure in the form of a spiral within the pyramid that may turn out to be what is left of Houdin's tunnels.

A project management group that studied the problem of building the Great Pyramid estimated that the project, using material and methods available at the time, might have required less than ten years to complete: Two or three years site preparation, five years of actual construction and two years to remove the ramps and put on the finishing touches. This could have been done with an average work force of less than 14,000 laborers and a peak force of 40,000. By examining the ruins of dwellings and workshops in the area, archeologists have estimated between 4,000 and 5,000 of these men were full-time workers committed to the project through most of the construction.

Workers complete one of the smaller pyramids on the eastern side of the Great Pyramid (Copyright Lee Krystek, 1999).

Egyptian records indicate that the laborers, while being drafted against their will, were actually well cared for by ancient standards. Regulations have been found covering the maximum amount of work allowed per day, the wages received and holidays each worker was entitled to. Also, by scheduling most of the work to be done during annual flood periods, the Pharaoh could get a lot done without impacting the normal Egyptian economy.

Was the Pyramid a Tomb?

Some have suggested that the pyramid was never meant as a tomb, but as an astronomical observatory. The Roman author Proclus, in fact, states that before the pyramid was completed it did serve in this function. We can't put too much weight on Proclus words, though, remembering that when he advanced his theory the pyramid was already over 2000 years old.

Richard Proctor, an astronomer, did observe that the descending passage could have been used to observe the transits of certain stars. He also suggested that the grand gallery, when open at the top during construction, could have been used for mapping the sky.

Many strange (and some silly) theories have arisen over the years to explain the pyramid and its passageways. Most archaeologists, however, accept the theory that the great pyramid was just the largest of a tradition of tombs used for the Pharaohs of Egypt.

Khufu's pyramid as it appeared in 2005. (Courtesy Nina Aldin Thune and Creative Commons)

So what happened to Khufu's mummy and treasure? Nobody knows. Extensive explorations have found no other chambers or passageways. Still one must wonder if, perhaps in this one case, the King and his architects outsmarted both the ancient thieves and modern archaeologists and that somewhere in, or below, the last wonder of the ancient world, rests Khufu and his sacred gold

6.Machu Picchu, Peru

Nowadays it is a Historic National Sanctuary, protected by the Peruvian Government by means of Law Nº 001.81.AA of 1981, that tries to conserve the geological formations and archaeological remains inside the Sanctuary, besides protecting its flora, fauna and landscape's beauty. The whole park has an extension of 32,592 Has.; that is 80,535 acres(325.92 km²; 125.83 mile²). Machupicchu (the Inkan City) is located on kilometer 112 (70 miles) of the Qosqo-Quillabamba railway; the train station is known as "Puente Ruinas" and lies at an altitude of 2000 mts (6560 ft.). From that station there are buses in order to get to South-America's most famous Archaeological Group that is found at an average altitude of 2450 mts (8038 ft.), and at 13°09'23'' of South Latitude and 72°32'34'' of West Longitude.
The climate in that sector has also some characteristics that are found all over the region; thus, only two well defined seasons are distinguished: the rainy season between September to April, and the dry season from May to August. Nevertheless, Machupicchu is found by the commencement of the Cusquenian Amazonian Jungle, so the chance of having rains or showers is latent by any time of the year. In the hottest days it is possible to get even about 26° Celsius (78.8° Fahrenheit), while that in the coldest early mornings in June and July the temperature may drop to -2° C. (28.4° F); the average annual temperature is 16 degrees Celsius. Annually, there is an average of rains from 1571 mm. (61 in.) to 2381 millimeters (93 in.). It is obvious that the monthly relative humidity is in direct relationship to rains, so the humidity average is from 77% during the dry months to 91% in the rainy months.
The Machupicchu Historic National Sanctuary is found over a great granite orogenic structure baptized by Dr. Isaiah Bowman as the " Vilcapampa Batholith" that outcrops over about 400 km² (154 mile²). Its formation belongs in the scale of geological time to the Paleozoic or Inferior Primary and may have an approximate age of 250 million years. The Vilcapampa Batholith's white-gray granite is an intrusive igneous rock (magma cooled off in great profundities inside the earth); it is mainly compound in average by 60% of feldspar, 30% of quartz, and a 10% of mica. That granite has interlaced equigranular texture and possesses from 6° to 7° of hardness in the MOHS scale with a resistance of 1200 Kg/cm². Likewise, in this region there are some other rocks corresponding to the Inferior Paleozoic; such as schist, quartzite and metamorphic conglomerations that might have an age from 350 to 450 million years.
Machupicchu (like most of the Quechua names of towns and different sites in the region) is a compound word that comes from machu = old or ancient, and picchu = peak or mountain; therefore, Machupicchu is translated as "Old Mountain". The famous mountain that is seen in front, and appears in most of the classical views of the site is named Waynapicchu (Young Mountain). Unfortunately the original names of the mentioned sectors are lost, Machupicchu, Waynapicchu and some other proper names used today are contemporary ones; ascribed probably by farmers living in the region before Bingham's arrival. However, according to studies about some XVI century documents, the original name of the whole area might be "Picchu".
It is known that Hiram Bingham, a descendant of missionaries, was the man who found Machupicchu for the contemporary world and modern science. He was a North-American historian born in Honolulu, Hawaii; who in 1907 taught the South-American History and Geography course in Yale University. Later he was chosen as delegate of his country to the First Pan-American Scientific Congress carried out in Chile in 1908. By that epoch he began his activities as explorer taking a horseback journey from Caracas to Bogota, following the Simon Bolivar's way. Then he followed the old colonial trade way from Buenos Aires to Lima, arriving to this Andean zone in 1909; it is in that year when from Abancay he started with his first exploration towards Choquekirau, trying to find the last Inkan Capital. By that time many myths had been created about the possibility of finding the "Inkas' treasures" that according to tradition had been taken by Manko Inka is his retreat to Willkapanpa (willka = sacred, panpa = plain; its Spanish form is "Vilcabamba"); thus it was so common by that epoch to find treasure hunters willing to get to this last Inkas' dwelling. That same intention moved Bingham to study chronicles and even to visit Spanish archives, and subsequently in 1911 to come back to Peru with the aim of performing studies of geology and botany, and for sure, also in order to try finding Willkapanpa.

In Qosqo, Albert Giesecke, a compatriot of his and rector of the local University had put him in touch with Braulio Polo y la Borda, owner of Mandor. That local landlord told Bingham that on the hill in front of his property there were ancient constructions covered by vegetation where cattle were frequently lost; and moreover, he introduced Bingham to Eduardo Lizarraga, a farmland renter living in the area since the 70s of the 19th century, who had seen the buildings. On July 23, 1911 Bingham showed up in Mandor along with a policeman, Sergeant Carrasco, who escorted him by order of Qosqo's Prefect Juan Jose Nuñez. They found in his hut the peasant Melchor Arteaga who told Bingham about the existence of two Inkan sites named Machupicchu and Waynapicchu; that same peasant was hired by Bingham to be the guide in order to get to the Inkan City. The next day, after examining the field they decided to climb up by the sector where nowadays is the zigzagging road. After noon they arrived at another hut where they found Anacleto Alvarez and Toribio Recharte; they were two humble peasants who along with their families lived in the area and cultivated the pre-Hispanic farming terraces. After a short break, they provided a boy as the guide for Bingham in order to have a first look of the Inkan buildings that were completely covered with entangled vegetation. That was how Bingham, at 35 years old, stumbled onto Machupicchu; a fortuitous happening that made manifest a great "discovery". Later he continued with his trip arriving even as far as Rosaspata, Ñust'a Hisp'ana, Pampaconas and Espiritu Pampa; places that apparently did not attract the explorer so much. 8. da victoria falls 9. da dead sea