Hiram Bingham III Stuart McNairn whose descendants claim that they had already climbed to the ruins in 1906). Also the Cusco explorers Enrique Palma, Gabino Sanchez and Agustín Lizarraga are said to have arrived at the site in 1901. Bingham returned to Peru in 1912, 1914 and 1915 with the support of Yale and the National Geographic Society. In "The Lost City of the Incas" (1948), Bingham related how he came to believe that Machu Picchu housed a major religious shrine and served as a training center for religious leaders. Modern archaeological research has since determined that the site was not a religious
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