Over a period of months Bingham and his team cleared centuries of jungle from the ruins of Machu Picchu. (Pictured: a site after a preliminary clearing, top, and three months later, bottom.) Underneath the brush were houses, temples, towers, canals, and thousands of steps and terraces.

“In several cases we found gigantic trees perched on the very tips of the gable ends of small and beautifully constructed houses,” Bingham wrote.