Machu Picchu Maps show references to Machu Picchu as early as 1874. In 1911 American historian and explorer Hiram Bingham travelled the region looking for the old Inca capital and was led to Machu Picchu by a villager, Melchor Arteaga. Bingham found the name Agustín Lizárraga and the date 1902 written in charcoal on one of the walls. Though Bingham was not the first to visit the ruins, he was considered the scientific discoverer who brought Machu Picchu to international attention. Bingham organized another expedition in 1912 to undertake major clearing and excavation. In 1981, Peru declared an area of surrounding Machu
Charlton Heston of killer ants. He played the lead in "Secret of the Incas", which was shot on location at the archeological site Machu Picchu and had numerous similarities to "Raiders of the Lost Ark". Filmed a quarter-century before the latter film, ""Incas"" included a tomb scene with the revelatory shaft of light pointing out a clue on a map and featured Heston's roguish antiquities thief's costume and light beard; "Raiders" costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis noted that it was "almost a shot for shot similar" to the film on which she worked. Heston played William Clark, the explorer, in "The Far