Dispute over lost city of the Incas: 02-06-2008
A dispute is occurring over who first discovered the lost Incan city, Machu Picchu, according to the Independent.
In 1911, Yale professor Hiram Bingham gained international respect and fame after locals led him to the 'lost city' of Machu Picchu.
However, it has since emerged that a German businessman by the name of Augusto R Berns may have beaten Bingham to it 40 years earlier after buying nearby land to de-forest for his ironically named Companhia Anonima Explotadora de las Huacas del Inca (the Inca Sites Exploitation Company) railway sleeper company.
It is said that Berns explored Machu Picchu and stripped it of its many ceramics, which would later turn up in US and European museums, after the Peruvian government authorised the looting an export of the antiquities in return for ten per cent of the takings.
Pressure is now growing for the return of the artefacts after US historian Paolo Greer uncovered the truth while roving through US and Peruvian archives.
The documents uncovered by Greer and written by Berns himself detail how he discovered several sealed underground structures.
Berns wrote that they would "undoubtedly contain objects of great value" – the "treasures of the Incas".
Machu Picchu was built in the 15th century under the Inca ruler Pachacuti and is situated 7,875 feet up in the Peruvian Andes, 30 miles from the city of Cuzco.