Augusto Berns

…visited by the German adventurer Augusto Berns in 1867. However, Machu Picchu’s existence was not widely known in the West until it was “discovered” in 1911 by the Yale University professor Hiram Bingham, who was led to the site by Melchor Arteaga, a local Quechua-speaking resident. Bingham had been seeking…

…preceded by the German adventurer Augusto Berns, who, some scholars believe, visited the site in 1867. Whether or not he was preceded by Berns, however, Bingham and his work were the key catalysts for the archaeological investigation of sites in the Andes and other parts of South America.