Editing Machu Picchu (section)

====Search for the Neo-Inca capital====
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| image1            = Agustín Lizárraga signature on Temple of Three Windows of Machu Picchu enhanced.jpg
| image2            = Agustín Lizárraga signature on Temple of Three Windows of Machu Picchu enhanced (cropped).jpg
| footer            = Inscription "A. Lizárraga 1902" by [[Agustín Lizárraga|Lizárraga]] on the central window of the Temple of the Three Windows
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In 1911 American historian and explorer [[Hiram Bingham III|Hiram Bingham]] traveled the region looking for the lost capital of the Neo-Inca state (later established to be [[Vilcabamba, Peru|Vilcabamba]]), established by [[Manco Inca]] after the Spanish conquest, and was led to Machu Picchu by a villager, Melchor Arteaga. Bingham found the name of the Peruvian explorer [[Agustín Lizárraga]] and the date 1902 written in charcoal on one of the walls of the Temple of the Three Windows. Initially disappointed, he documented in his pocket field journal: "Agustín Lizárraga is discoverer of Machu Picchu and lives at San Miguel Bridge just before passing."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Heaney |first=Christopher |url=https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780230112049/cradleofgold |title=Cradle of gold: the story of Hiram Bingham, a real-life Indiana Jones and the search for Machu Picchu |date=2011 |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers|MacMillan]] |isbn=978-0-230-11204-9 |access-date=8 August 2023|location= New York}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Bingham (1875–1956) |first=Hiram |date=2004-01-01 |title=Inca Land: Explorations in the Highlands of Peru |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/10772/10772-h/10772-h.htm |access-date=2023-08-07 |publisher=[[Project Gutenberg]] |language=en-us}}</ref> However, while Bingham initially acknowledged Lizárraga as the discoverer in his early writings and speeches, including ''Inca Land'' (1922), he gradually downplayed Lizárraga's role until, in his final version of the story, ''Lost City of the Incas'' (1952), Bingham claimed to have found the site himself.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hall |first=Amy Cox |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VZk5DwAAQBAJ |title=Framing a Lost City: Science, Photography, and the Making of Machu Picchu |date=2017-11-22 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-1-4773-1368-8 |language=en}}</ref>

Though Bingham was not the first to visit the ruins, he was considered the scientific discoverer who brought Machu Picchu to international attention. Bingham organized another expedition in 1912 to undertake major clearing and excavation.<ref name="Hiram" />{{rp|xxx–xxxi}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wiener |first=Aaron |date=1 May 2008 |title=Hiram Bingham's Expedition and the Peruvian Response: A Connecticut Yanqui in the Land of the Incas |url=https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/mssa_collections/1 |journal=Kaplan Senior Essay Prize for Use of Library Special Collections |access-date=9 August 2023}}</ref>