Secret of the Incas shot in Peru before. Wendell Corey was originally announced as star. In July 1953 Paramount took over Hal Wallis' contract with Charlton Heston and announced he would make the film after he finished "The Naked Jungle". "Secret of the Incas" was filmed on location in Peru at Cuzco and Machu Picchu, the first time that a major Hollywood studio filmed at this archeological site. A sixteen person unit including Heston, producer Mel Epstein and director Jerry Hopper spent a month filming footage in Peru in 1953. Five hundred indigenous people were used as extras in the film. The film also
Machu Picchu then crossed a pass and into the Pampaconas Valley where he found more ruins heavily buried in the jungle undergrowth at Espíritu Pampa, which he named "Trombone Pampa". As was the case with Machu Picchu, the site was so heavily overgrown that Bingham could only note a few of the buildings. In 1964, Gene Savoy further explored the ruins at Espiritu Pampa and revealed the full extent of the site, identifying it as Vilcabamba Viejo where the Incas fled after the Spanish drove them from Vitcos. Bingham returned to Machu Picchu in 1912 under the sponsorship of Yale University and