SUPPLEMENTARY READING
| EARLY MAN IN SOUTH AMERICA | By Ales Hrlicka |
| Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 52 | |
| HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF PERU | By W. H. Prescott |
| THE INCAS OF PERU | By Sir Clements R. Markham |
| SOUTH AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY | By Thomas A. Joyce |
| STAIRCASE FARMS OF THE ANCIENTS | By O. F. Cook |
| National Geographic Magazine, Volume 29, No. 5 | |
| FURTHER EXPLORATIONS IN THE LAND OF THE INCAS | By Dr. Hiram Bingham |
| National Geographic Magazine, Volume 29, No. 5 | |
| THE STORY OF MACHU PICCHU | By Dr. Hiram Bingham |
| National Geographic Magazine, Volume 27, No. 2 |
THE OPEN LETTER
MONOLITHIC GATEWAY AT TIAHUANACO
We are indebted to Dr. Hiram Bingham and his Peruvian Expeditions for the interesting picture material in this number of The Mentor. Dr. Bingham (Lieut.-Colonel Bingham) became interested in South America when he was in Yale University, and in 1906 he took an expedition over the historic march of Bolivar from Venezuela to Colombia. Two years later, when Colonel Bingham was appointed a delegate to the first Pan American Scientific Congress at Santiago, Chile, he went there by way of Bolivia and Peru, and, while in Peru, he visited the ruins of Choqquequirau (meaning the “cradle of gold”), said to be the last home of the Incas.
Colonel Bingham’s studies led him to think that the legend was wrong. So, in 1911, he set off to Peru, with a party of six, his objects being to hunt for “Vitcos” (the name of the last home of the Incas) and to make an ascent of Corropuna, reputed to be a rival of Aconcagua for the honor of being the highest mountain in South America. The expedition was very successful. Corropuna was scaled, and found to be somewhat lower than Aconcagua. Vitcos was found at Rosaspata and not at Choqquequirau. The reputed bottomless lake of Parinaccochas was found to be no more than four feet in depth, and, best of all, Machu Picchu was discovered.