Machu Picchu Picchu a "historic sanctuary". In addition to the ruins, the sanctuary includes a large portion of the adjoining region, rich with the flora and fauna of the Peruvian Yungas and Central Andean wet puna ecoregions. In 1983, UNESCO designated Machu Picchu a World Heritage site, describing it as "an absolute masterpiece of architecture and a unique testimony to the Inca civilization". Bingham was a lecturer at Yale University, although not a trained archaeologist. In 1909, returning from the Pan-American Scientific Congress in Santiago, he travelled through Peru and was invited to explore the Inca ruins at Choqquequirau in the Apurímac
Ancient Ruins and Archaeology Quarterly", and "Travel". The work is a guide to a dozen of the more famous ruins from civilizations of ancient times throughout the world, the speculations surrounding their fates, and modern fantasy literature inspired by them. The surveyed sites include Tartessos, the Pyramids of Giza, Stonehenge, Troy, Ma'rib, Zimbabwe, Tintagel, Angkor, the Mayan city of Tikal, the Inca city of Machu Picchu, Nan Matol, and the Moai of Rapa Nui. Francis D. Lazenby, in the "Library Journal", called the book a "highly literate volume" whose "fascinating" accounts "are not simply another retelling: unusual material is added, and in very readable