SearchThe ancient Incan site known has Machu Picchu has probably had the wrong name for over 100 years. The long-lost 15th Century Incan city known as Machu Picchu, sits high in the mountains of Cusco, Peru. It’s visited by thousands each year, is a World Heritage site and considered an archeological marvel.
It was discovered by the American explorer, Hiram Bingham, in 1911. When Bingham discovered the site, he asked a local farmer to write down the name. The farmer, Melchor Arteaga, wrote down Macho Pischo which Bingham chose to interpret as Machu Picchu and so the name stuck.
It is now thought that Bingham perhaps did not fully understand the language known as Quechua. Picchu is the word for a mountain, and it is the mountain south of the site that is actually Machu Picchu.
In 1990, an Andean scholar discovered documents that referred to an ancient Incan city called Huayna Picchu and now several researchers have confirmed those findings. The name is by now so established that it is unlikely to change.
