Machu Picchu risks of landslides, earthquakes and injury due to decaying structures. Nude tourism is a recent trend, to the dismay of Peruvian officials. In several incidents, tourists were detained for posing for nude pictures or streaking across the site. Peru's Ministry of Culture denounced these acts for threatening Peru's cultural heritage. Cusco's Regional Director of Culture increased surveillance to end the practice. In January 2010, heavy rain caused flooding that buried or washed away roads and railways to Machu Picchu, trapping more than 2,000 locals and more than 2,000 tourists, later airlifted out to safety. Machu Picchu was temporarily closed, reopening
Hiram Bingham III center but a royal estate to which Inca leaders and their entourage repaired during the Andean summer. Machu Picchu has become one of the major tourist attractions in South America, and Bingham is recognized as the man who brought the site to world attention, although many others helped to bring this site into the public eye. The switchback-filled road that carries tourist buses to the site from the Urubamba River is called the Hiram Bingham Highway. Bingham has been cited as one possible basis for the Indiana Jones character. His book "Lost City of the Incas" became a bestseller upon