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1 This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of works on Machu Picchu, as there are many other publications that deal with the ruins.

2 The San Miguel bridge was located just downstream from Machu Picchu.

3 This conversation and the name “Huainapichu” is recorded in Bingham’s field journal (MacQuarrie 2007:390). When recalling this same conversation some thirty years later, Bingham, perhaps unconsciously, changed the name stating that the miner told him that there were “interesting ruins at Machu Picchu” (Bingham 1948:113).

4 Before he left for Peru, Bingham corresponded with William Curtis Farabee, a Harvard University professor who had led the J. DeMilhau Ethnological Expedition to South America (1906–1909). Farabee reported that during his field work he heard rumors of a lost city in the mountains and he sent Bingham some kind of map. This vague information appears not to have been useful to Bingham in finding the site of Machu Picchu since he writes, “On the other hand, a Harvard Anthropological Expedition, under the leadership of Dr. William Farabee, had recently been over this road without reporting any ruins of importance (Bingham 1915:202).”

5 This new road was built by the German engineer Herman Göhring in 1873. Polo y la Borda was one of the inspectors of the road that the state ordered to build to aid coca production lower down the Urubamba River in the Santa Ana Valley (now generally called Quillabamba).

6 In another article, Bingham (1913:403) describes the conversation as follows “He said that on top of the magnificent precipice nearby there were some ruins at a place called Machu Pichu, and that there were others still more inaccessible at Huayna Picchu, on a peak not far distant from our camp.”

7 Enrique Palma and Agustín Lizárraga, both of whom lived on the valley floor, and Gavino Sanchez, visited the site on the 14th of July 1902 (Cosio 1912:20). They may have looted Machu Picchu during this visit, as a large Inca vessel said to be found by Lizárraga, and subsequently sold to Tomas Alvistur (the son-in-law of the owner of the nearby Huadquiña Hacienda), was purchased by Bingham in 1914 (Heaney 2010:172–173). At the time of Bingham’s 1911 visit, Alvistur had no knowledge of Machu Picchu, but he offered to help Bingham visit a series of other, smaller sites, that were near to the Huadquiña Hacienda (Bingham 1912:220–221). For additional information on pre-Bingham explorations in the Urubamba River valley near Machu Picchu, see Buck (1993).

8 Luis A Pardo (1961:7) suggests that Luis Bejar Ugarte visited the site in 1894 but provides no additional details.

9 Mr. Agustín Lizárraga died crossing the Urubamba River on 11 February 1912 about a month after he led another group of visitors to the site (Cosio 1912:13).

10 Daniel Buck (1993:30), who has spent decades researching the recent history of Machu Picchu, reports that several days later while Bingham was at Santa Ana, Bingham wrote a letter to the Royal Geographical Society in London announcing his discovery: “found the ruins of a wonderful old Inca city … now called Machu Pichu i.e. old Pichu.”

11 The first member of Bingham’s team to climb Huayna Picchu was Kenneth C. Heald. Heald was the topographer on Bingham’s 1912 expedition and was also in charge of clearing the initial paths to the site. Once the path was completed he turned his attention to gaining access to Huayna Picchu, to investigate what was rumored to be a set of magnificent ruins at it summit. After several failed attempts, he reached the summit with the help of Arteaga who had been there before.

12 Apparently during his January 1912 visit, Justo Ochoa wrote his name on some 30 different locations at the site (Bingham 1930:19). Ochoa returned for a second vision on July 23, 1912, along with Giesecke and a dozen other professors and students from the Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco.

13 “ … no se oía hablar frecuentemente de Machupiccho, y si se nombraba este lugar era para designar simplemente una posición de la hacienda Silque en cuyos lineros se encuentra, ya no para designar como mantenedor de restos de la importancia y proporciones que en si encierran” (Cosio 1912:4).

14 Bingham (1948:114) had a copy of this map on his 1911 expedition.

15 While Bingham references Markham’s book Incas of Peru (1912) several times in his own book Inca land (Bingham 1912), there is no evidence that Bingham had a copy of Markham’s 1910 map when he was conducting research in the Cusco region in 1911.

16 On September 8, 1912, a letter was published in the New York Times (which had been published the day before in Berlin) written by the German engineer Carl Haenel, stating that his colleague J. M. von Hassel was the first to visit the ruins of Machu Picchu. A review of von Hassel’s publications produced while he was working for the Junta de Vias Fluviales by Buck has found no specific mention of the ruins. (see http://www.kimmacquarrie.com/category/did-a-german-discover-machu-picchu/)

17 There is also the curious case of August R. Berns. It appears that Berns first traveled into the region in search of large stands of trees to cut as ties for the Cusco-Arequipa railroad. He established a sawmill near the base of Machu Picchu; the remains of which were seen by many who later traveled down the Urubamba. Sometime later, Berns founded a mining company with hopes of prospecting in the region across the river from Machu Picchu (Greer 2008; Mould de Pease y Romero Pacheco 2008). While the area of the ruins is marked on a map used by Berns as “Point Huaca Inca” there is no additional evidence that he climbed the ridge to visit them, and he never used the names Machu Picchu or Huayna Picchu in his pamphlets (see http://www.kimmacquarrie.com/category/did-a-german-discover-machu-picchu/)

18 Among the vast holdings of Hernando Pizarro were Amaybamba, Biticos (Vitcos) as well as the Valley of Bilcabamba (Vilcabamba) (Varón Gabai 1996), the three most important Inca towns downriver from Machu Picchu.

19 In 1572 a commission headed by Pedro Alonso Carrasco and García de Melo was sent to Amaybamba to investigate why Arias Maldonado had provided no tribute that year. The commission concluded that the Indians of Amaybamba and Piccho could not give what was assigned to them because during the war of Vilcabamba more than one hundred men had been stationed near the Chuquichaca bridge, and many others had passed through the region, exhausting the local produce (ARC. Corregimiento de Causas Ordinarias. Leg. 1. 1551–1585. C. 11. Causas ordinarias).

20 Also known as Inca Yupanqui.

21 This claim that Machu Picchu was built during the time of Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui is supported by a 1570 document published by Rostworowski (1963:229, also cited in Rowe 1990:280) that indicates that the nearby ruins of Guaman Marca in the Amaybamba Valley were also built for the pleasure of Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui (“fueron de ynca yupanqui que tenía allí para su recreación”).

22 It should be noted that some of the Silque documents list four closely spaced toponyms called: Machu Picchu, Huayna Picchu, Apo Picchu and Capac Picchu.

23 … y ha venido a nuestra noticia que los yndios naturales desta provinçia /f.6v/ Pretenden con mucha instançia poblarse y rreduçirse a donde diçen Vayna Piccho que es muy lexos y apartado de esta dicha ciudad en mas distancia de diez leguas en lo mas postrero de los confines e limites de esta dicha Governacion e tierras que para ir a ellas de fuerça sea de pasar el rrio grande de Viticos e Por aspera de çerros Ya montaña e ynspunables de cuya caussa se puede presumir no lo hacer los dichos yndios con buen yntento que podían volver a idolatrar y apostar en sus rritos y ceremonias como en tiempo de su ynfedilidad. (ARC Ciencias, Documentos Silque, 1635–1722, Parte 1, f. 6–7, transcription by Amado Gonzales).

24 San Francisco de la Victoria de Vilcabamba.

25 Machu Picchu was located on the limits of Inca and Spanish controlled territory for nearly 40 years.

26 For additional information on the history of the Vilcabamba region during the time of Martin Hurtado de Arbieto see Bauer et al 2016:23–42.

27 Some of the inhabitants of the Vilcabamba region may have been originally from Huayna Picchu, having moved into the region with Manco Inca when he fled Cusco.

28 The document states: “Linderos/ por la parte de arriba la apacheta de la vista a la Laguna de nombrada Ancas cocha por un lado con tierras de la hazienda de Silque y de ella corre hasta otra apacheta nombrada Acocaza y de ella por la cuchilla del serro nevado va a dar a otra nombrada Tanca piray e de ellas corre al serro de Salcantay y de alli por el rio de Palcay aguas avajo hasta dar a seis buxios antiguos del tiempo del Ynga y de ellos a otra apacheta nombrada Guaira Casa y de alli para el pueblo antiguo del Ynga nombrado Guaynapicho y de el baja al rio grande de Vilcamayo y aguas arriba de el hasta por donde entra a el rio nombrado Guayllabamba que vaja del paraje del mismo nombre y aguas arriba del hasta llegar a el paraje nombrado Quesca que sube a la Apacheta de Ancascocha que es el primer lindero de bajo de que se comprehenden dichas punas y que de ellas se nos de nuebo titulo para en guarda de nuestro derecho y pedimos justicia etc.” (ARC Ciencias. Documentos, Silque, 1635–1722. Part 11, f. 8; transcription by Amado Gonzales).