The importance of researching a place before traveling is essential, knowing its history, customs, territorial structure and its attractions; it will help you enjoy your trip more. Fortunately, there are different books that will help you with this task, if your destination is the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, located in Peru.
Below are the books that will help you learn everything about the Inca culture before your trip, and how this wonderful construction arose in a place hidden among mountains, surrounded by lush jungle.
Enjoy the best books written by Peruvian and/or foreign researchers and explorers, inspired and fascinated by the beauty of Machu Picchu. Real and fictional stories that will help you learn more about the magic and history of the Inca culture.
“The Lost City of the Incas” by Hiram Bingham
Written by the American historian and explorer Hiram Bingham. A book where he describes how he lived the moments when he rediscovered the ruins of Machu Picchu in 1911. Accompanied by an indigenous guide and the local governor, he heads to the city of Vilcabamba in Cusco; but on the way he met peasants and was guided by a child who took him to the ruins of Machu Picchu; rediscovering it, after many years abandoned.
The author of this book, tells in first person, the emotion and adventure of reaching the Old Mountain, and describes everything he lived and saw there; how he found Machu Picchu; describes how many of the ruins at that time were completely covered by jungle. How he was surprised to discover the Inca ruins.
This book will make you live in first person how he lived this discovery, the experiences he went through, and who were those who helped in its discovery, an ideal book to learn about and live through the discovery of Machu Picchu.
“The Conquest of the Incas” by John Hemming
A very interesting book, which gives us an understanding of how the culture of the Inca civilization survives to this day; with its customs and beliefs that remain rooted in its descendants. Carefully preserving its architectural structures, ceramic pieces, diversity of gold, silver, bronze jewelry and textiles.
The new descendants of the Inca culture have everything very well preserved, even after centuries; even after the Spanish conquest, where they destroyed everything they saw in their path, causing the death of Manco Inca, who was in charge of the Inca Empire at that time.
“The Last Days of the Incas” by Kim MacQuarrie
This book tells in detail about the last days of the Incas, and the cruel Spanish conquest; the Inca rebellion, until the final conquest.
The final chapters narrate about the discovery of Machu Picchu, and the fame it later had; thanks to the rediscovery of Hiram Bingham.
“The Tombs of Machu Picchu” : The story of Hiram Bingham
This very well narrated book tells the importance of the discovery of Machu Picchu by Hiram Bingham, but in a much more adventurous way. The author considers the American discoverer and archaeologist as the Indiana Jones of Peru.
The book describes Bingham’s adventures in the process of discovering Machu Picchu, and the subsequent consequences of this event, which marked a great milestone in Peruvian history.
“The Inca Trail: Cusco and Machu Picchu” by Richard Danbury and Alexander Stewart
This book is suitable for people who want to do the famous Inca Trail to get to Machu Picchu, a book for adventurous people.
The content of this writing includes an exemplary guide to the Inca Trail, including maps and a detailed description of the archaeological sites found along this route. An adventure of 4 days and 3 nights, which finally has as its destination and arrival point the imposing Inca citadel of Machu Picchu.
“Machu Picchu: The most famous archaeological monument in Peru” by Luis Eduardo Valcárcel
This book was written by a prestigious Peruvian anthropologist and historian Luis Eduardo Valcárcel; who carries out a series of investigations on Machu Picchu, and later captures and reveals in this book the importance and true meaning of Machu Picchu for Peru and South America.
It tells how the Inca Empire was built and strengthened, and how it came to integrate, in a great society
age to numerous towns in South America. And the mystery of the participation of the Cusco monarchs in the construction of the most surprising architectural complexes of the Sacred Valley of the Incas and Machu Picchu.
It is definitely the right book for those who wish to deepen their knowledge about one of the Wonders of the Modern World and the Inca culture.
“The Lost City: The Discovery of Machu Picchu” by Ted Lewin
This important book takes its readers on an exciting journey to Peruvian lands, where its main characters are the rediscoverer of Machu Picchu Hiram Bingham and the peasant boy from Cusco, who took him, without imagining it, to discover the wonderful Inca citadel.
It tells how in 1911, he traveled a dangerous mountain path in search of Vilcabamba, through jungles and wild animals typical of the area; called at that time the lost city of the Incas. However, guided in his last steps by a Quechua boy, he discovered not the rumored lost city, but the ruins of Machu Picchu, a city totally unknown to the outside world, and one of the wonders of the world.
“Turn Right to Machu Picchu” by Mark Adams
The author of this book had to go into the Inca Trail to write this book. He walked and explored the path that the famous Hiram Bingham took to the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu.
Discovering along the way new adventures and challenges, and reaffirming the adventures that the rediscoverer of the Inca citadel had to face; without the technology that is told in recent years.
In the last chapters of the book, he tells how the nomination of this incredible mountain was, later becoming one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
“Machu Picchu Guide” by Antonio Zapata Velazco
Written by the Peruvian Antonio Zapata, a historian who has several publications under his belt, among them, one of the most famous is: Machu Picchu Guide.
The author describes sites of great importance in the Inca citadel, such as the Intihuatana, the Temple of the Condor, among others; he also describes the importance of the Inca Pachacútec, who ordered the construction of this beautiful citadel, and his government as the Inca who expanded the Inca Empire further, over other civilizations without the use of brute force, only by establishing alliances.
So don’t wait any longer to get to know Machu Picchu, its wonders and its mysteries; and what better than the travel specialists Viagens Machu Picchu who have promotional packages.