The city of Machupicchu is located in CUZCO at south of Peru. Is one of the largest tourist cities in Peru more than 40,000 people visit it every month, and is the largest attraction there is. Currently in 2007 Machupicchu is being considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The Peruvian government had been encouraging people from all over the world to vote for Machupicchu to be the first Seven Wonder of the World. As we all know Machupicchu was forgotten by the outside world several years ago until in 1911 Hiram Bingham rediscovered this beautiful city (accidentally) and brought it to the eyes of the outside world. He was a Yale University student who was looking for Vitcos, the last capital of the Incas, which was located near Vilcabamba, but instead he found the lost city called Machupicchu.
The place was full of wild vegetation, many constructions were collapsed, but some of them were still in good shape.
Hiram Bingham removed many precious artifacts from the ancient city, which is why Peru still is making legal efforts to get back the objects that he had removed from the city. Yale University in United States do not want to give them back, it is said that it represents the value and effort of a great archeologist. The artifacts that were taken from Peru represents the folklore of the people therefore shouldn’t have been taken from its original place. For hundreds of years, many have conducted searches in the Andes, to discover the lost city of the Incas, part of the "El Dorado", "Land Of Gold", which was believed to host unimaginable treasures. Amongst the first who were seduced by the idea, was this conquistador, Francisco Pizarro. It was said that the Incas deposited their gold in the lost city and some other cities throughout the country. Some speculate that the city was actually MachuPicchu, but this theory has no basis, because this city was rather a religious sanctuary, few precious objects have been found there. It is still a fact that some precious objects were found and removed by Bingham.
Hiram Bingham is officially recognized as being the discoverer of MachuPicchu. However, it is proven that Palma, Sanchez, and Lizarraga have set their feet on top of the mountain before the American archaeologist. Bingham remains the main figure, also because he was the first to have conducted archaeological studies and he has uncovered the whole city from the earth and plants that have covered it and brought it to be an attraction around the world
