6 Legendary Facts About Lost Cities

Machu Picchu Mix Up

In 1911, Hiram Bingham III went searching for Vilcabamba, the hidden capital that the Inca fled to in order to escape the Spanish conquistadors, but he found Machu Picchu instead. He argued that Vilcabamba and Machu Picchu were the same place for the rest of his life, though scholars have since disproven this theory. However, Machu Picchu may have never been a lost city at all to the locals, as farmers were living at the site when Bingham arrived.

Read more on the next page...