In one of the most spectacular settings on earth, the great Inca ruler Pachacuti built a royal retreat and sacred center that is known 1 Machu Picchu. Commenced in the middle of the fifteenth century, it was used by Pachacuti and his panaca (royal corporate family group), 2 continued to improve the site until the empire was destroyed by the conquering Spaniards in the 1530s. 3 there is evidence that the Spaniards were aware 4 a place called Piccho, there is 5 record that they ever visited this site. Certainly, the sacred rocks, defaced by Spaniards in 6 locations, remained intact here. Centuries of Jungle growth enveloped the great granite structures and temples, 7 the castle in “Sleeping Beauty,” for 8 than three hundred fifty years. Then, in 1911, a young American explorer named Hiram Bingham led an expedition into the Urubamba Valley, looking for a “lost city of Incas.”