An explorer`s encounter with the ruined city of Machu Picchu, the most famous icon of the Inca civilisation

一位探险者偶然到达已经毁灭的马丘比丘古城，这是印加文明最著名的代表

AWhen the US explorer and academic Hiram Bingham arrives in South America in 1911, he was ready for what was to be the greatest chievement of his life: the exploration of the remote hinterland to the west of Cusco, the old capital of the Inca empire in the Andes mountains of Peru. His goal was to locate the remains of a city called Vitcos, the last capital of the Inca civilisation. Cusco lies on a high plateau at an elevation of more than 3,000 metres, and Bingham`s plan was to descend from this plateau along the valley of the Urubamba river, which takes a circuitous route down to the Amazon and passes through an area of dramatic canyons and mountain ranges.

A当美国探险家、学者Hiram Bingham在1911年到达南美洲时，他准备好了迎接他一生中最伟大的成就:在库斯科西边探索偏远的内陆地区，这是位于秘鲁安第斯山脉的印加王国古老的首都他的目标是找到一个叫做维特科斯的城市遗址，这是印加文明最后的首都库斯科位于一个海拔高于3000米的高原上，他的计划是沿着乌鲁班巴河的山谷一路盘旋向下到达亚马逊河，穿过一片巨大的峡谷和山脉。

BWhen Bingham and his team set off down the Urubamba in late July, they had an advantage over travellers who had preceded them: a track had track had recently been blasted down the valley canyon to enable rubber to be brought up by mules from the jungle. Almost all previous travellers had left the river at Ollantaytambo and taken a high pass across the mountains to rejoin the river lower down, thereby cutting a substantial corner, but also therefore never passing through the area around Machu Picchu.

B当Bingham和他的团队在七月下旬沿着乌鲁班巴河动身而下时，他们比之前的旅行者更有优势:一条沿着峡谷开辟不久的小道，这条小路为马骡从丛林运输橡胶提供了方便。几乎先前所有的旅行者都在奥扬泰坦博离开河流，在高处穿越山脉并在较低的地方方重返河流，从而抄了一个很近的近路，但也因此从未穿过马丘比丘附近的区域。

COn 24 July they were a few days into their descent of the valley. The day began slowly, with Bingham trying to arrange sufficient mules for the next stage of the trek. His companions showed no interest in accompanying him up the nearby hill to see some ruins that a local farmer, Melchor Arteaga, had told them about the night before. The morning was dull and damp, and Bingham also seems to have been less than keep on the prospect of climbing the hill. In his book Lost City of the Incas, he relates that he made the ascent without having the least expectation that he would find anything at the top.

C在7月24日，他们已经沿着山谷下行了几天这一天开始进展得很慢，Bingham试图为下一阶段的长途跋涉安排足够的马骡，他的同伴们没有兴趣陪他爬上附近的小山去看前一晚当地农民Melchor Arteaga告诉他们的以前城市的遗迹，那天早上阴暗潮湿，Bingham也似乎对爬上小山的计划并不是很期待，在他的《印加失落的城市一书中，他提到，爬山时对能在山顶发现什么时，他没有一丝期待。

DBingham writes about the approach in vivid style in his book. First, as he climbs up the hill, he describes the ever-present possibility of deadly snakes, `capable of making considerable springs when in pursuit of their prey`; not that he sees any. Then there`s a sense of mounting discovery as he comes across great sweeps of terraces, then a mausoleum, followed by monumental staircases and, finally, the grand ceremonial buildings of Machu Picchu. `It seemed like an unbelievable dream- the sight held me spellbound-` he wrote.

DBingham在他的书中用生动的语言描述了爬山的过程首先，随着他爬上小山、他描述到随时可能出现致命的毒蛇，。它们能在追寻猎物时突然跃起。;这并不是他亲眼看见过的，接着他觉得有了越来越多的发现，他遇到了大片的梯田、然后是大陵墓，还有壮观的台阶，最后是马丘比丘宏伟的宗教建筑，他写道:“这似乎是一场令人难以置信的梦······那景象让我着迷...”

EWe should remember, however, that Lost City of the Incas is a work of hindsight, not written until 1948, many years after his journey. His journal entries of the time reveal a much more gradual appreciation of his achievement. He spent the afternoon at the ruins noting down the dimensions of some of the buildings, then descended and rejoined his companions, to whom he seems to have said little about his discovery. At this stage, Bingham didn't realise the extent or the importance of the site, nor did he realise what use e could make of the discovery.

E然而，我们要知道，《印加失落的城市》是一本后来写的书，直到1948年才出版，那时已经距他旅行结束之后很多年了他当年的日记记录揭示出他对自己成就渐进式的认知。他花了一下午在废坡中记录一些建筑的规模，然后下山重新与同伴们会合，他没有意识到这些发现能有什么用。

FHowever, soon after returning it occurred to him that he could make a name for himself from this discovery. When he came to write the National Geograohic magazine article that broke the story to the world in April 1913, he knew he had to produce a big idea. He wondered whether it could also have been what chroniclers described as `the last city of the Incas `. This term refers to Vilcabamba, the settlement where the Incas had fled from Spanish invaders in the 1530s. Bingham made desperate attempts to prove this belief for nearby 40 years. Sadly, his vision of the site as both the beginning and end of the Inca civilisation, while a magnificent one, is inaccurate. We now know that Vilcabamba actually lies 65 kilometres away in the depths of the jungle.

F然而，返回后不久，他想到他可以通过这次发现为向己扬名乡1913年四月他在国家地理》杂志发表文章将这个故事公开时，他意识到自己需要一个更大的想法。他设想那是否曾是第一位印加王曼科大帝的诞生地，还有是否可能是历史学家们所描述的"印加最后的城市。。这个税法指的是比尔卜班巴，是16世纪30年代印加人躲避西班牙入侵时的避本所，Bingham花了将近40年的时间不顾一切地试图证明这一猜想。遗憾的是，此地虽然很壮观，但既不是印加文明的开始也不是结束之地我们现在知道比尔卡班巴实际上是在65公里外的丛林深处。

GOne question that has perplexed visitors, historians and archaeologists alike ever since Bingham, is why the site seems to have been abandoned before the Spanish Conquest. There are no references to it by any of the Spanish chroniclers - and if they had known of its existence so close to Cusco they would certainly have come in search of gold. An idea which has gained wide acceptance over the past few years is that Machu Picchu was a moya, a country estate built by an Inca emperor to escape the cold winters of Cusco, where the elite could enjoy monumental architecture and spectacular views. Furthermore, the particular architecture of Machu Picchu suggests that it was constructed at the time of the greatest of all the Incas, the emperor Pachacuti (c. 1438-71). By custom, Pachacuti`s descendants built other similar estates for their own use, and so Machu Picchu would have been abandoned after his death , some 50 years before the Spanish Conquest.

G自Bingha田以来的探险者、历史学家以及考古学家们都一直很困扰:为什么这座城市似乎在西班牙入侵之前就被遗弃了。没有任何西班牙的历史记录者提到这里，而如果他们知道这里和库斯科如此接近，他们一定会到这里寻找黄金，在过去的几年里，一个被广泛接受的说法是马丘比丘是一处moya，即一位印加帝王在此躲避庠斯科寒冬的庄园，在那里上层人士可以住在宏伟的建筑里，欣赏壮丽的景色，除此之外，这座马丘比丘建筑显示着它是建立在印加文明最繁盛的时期——帕查房蒂帝王时代(C.1438一71)、按惯例，帕查库蒂的后代为自己建立了相似的建筑，因此马丘比丘可能在他离世后被遗弃，这发生在西班牙入侵前约50年。