Hiram Bingham (1875–1956)

Bingham is a good writer, the maps are decent (could provide a bit better detail!), and he does a good job of recapitulating the story of his involvement with Machu Picchu. I just don't get archeologists and their conclusions. The just make shit up whenever they cannot figure something out. I really love his conclusion on the obsidian pebbles....they are tally stones for those bringing alpaca wool to the Chosen Women. Huh? I will never give an archeological book a superior rating, but this was pretty good, nevertheless....… (altro)

FINALLY finished this book! I enjoy reading about early scientific explorations, and Bingham's search for ancient Inca cities that were mentioned in historical documents certainly qualifies. But this guy does NOT know how to tell a story. This book is a jumble of descriptions of historical records, travel preparations, natural history observations, and truly hair-raising travelogues. The difficulty in following the story was compounded by the hideously scanned electronic version from Google's Internet Library. If you want to read this, get your hands on a printed copy.… (altro)