The Architecture (and Culture) of Lost Cities that Explorers Found Again: Macchu Picchu

My friend Marilyn ( who is alas not really with us any longer, languishing as she is in unfortunate circumstances in a nursing home--you get used to this kind of loss as you grow older-but I mean, you really DON'T get used to it, you just learn it is part of aging)..

Anyway, in what was psychologists might call one of the 'peak experiences' of her life she traveled to visit the ruins of Macchu Picchu and never really got over it... (Just as many people, like John Denver, have some kind of amazing experience the first time they are in the Rocky Mountains--it was something like that for me out West, too)

Here is story, anway

 Lost Cities That Were Rediscovered-Macchu Picchu

Michele Berger weather.com

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Machu Picchu was recognized as a World Wonder in 2007. (Cris Bournocle/AFP/Getty Images)

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Our fascination with ancient peoples and the ancient past causes us to dig, often deep into the Earth, to see what has escaped the ravages of the elements.

We’ve been doing this for some 150 years, archaeologist Francisco Estrada-Belli told Weather.com. Yet “when it comes to archeology, we’re really just scratching the surface,” he said. “There are many parts of the world that have wonderful manifestations of human culture that haven’t been explored properly.”

Typically, the “treasures” are small artifacts like arrowheads and jewelry. “While it can be very exciting to think about uncovering a golden object or making a highly unusual discovery, that doesn’t happen all that often,” according to the Archaeological Institute of America, “and usually only in the movies.”

When we’re patient and lucky, however, this curiosity can lead us to entire buried cities, like the two found back-to-back this summer in Mexico and Cambodia. Here, we look at nine of the cities that shed light on the history of people all over the world. We start with Machu Picchu.

The Incan city of Machu Picchu sits nearly a mile and a half above sea level in Peru. A UNESCO World Heritage site, it’s described as one of the greatest creations of the Inca people at their peak: “Its giant walls, terraces and ramps seem as if they have been cut naturally in the continuous rock escarpments,” the UNESCO description reads. “The natural setting, on the eastern slopes of the Andes, encompasses the upper Amazon basin with its rich diversity of flora and fauna.”

Threatened species like the spectacled bear and the Andean condor live in and around Machu Picchu, which covers about 125 square miles.

The discovery of the city came in July of 1911, when American Hiram Bingham arrived in the country to explore. According to History.com, Bingham traveled by mule, then on foot led by locals to the site thought to be a “summer retreat” for Incan leaders. Torrential rains damaged the ruins in 2010, but today, some 300,000 tourists annually visit.