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A When the US explorer and academic Hiram Bingham arrived in South America in1911, he was ready for what was to be the greatest achievement of his life: the exploration of the remote hinterland to the west of Cusco, the old capital of the Inca empire in the Andes mountains of Peru. A当美国探险家Hiram Bingham在1911年抵达南美时，他已为取得这一生中最伟大的成就做好了准备：从边远腹地到库思科（地处秘鲁安第斯山脉的印加帝国的古老首都）西部进行探险。 His goal was to locate the remains of a city called Vitcos, the last capital of the Inca civilisation. 他的目标是找到一个名为维特科斯城的地方——印加文明最后一个首都的遗迹。 Cusco lies on a high plateau at an elevation of more than 3,000 metres, and Bingham’s plan was to descend from this plateau along the valley of the Urubamba river, which takes a circuitous route down to the Amazon and passes through an area of dramatic canyons and mountain ranges. 库思科位于海拔3000米以上的高原上，并且Bingham的计划是从这个高原上下来，沿着乌鲁班巴河山谷航行，此项计划采取迂回路线直接到达亚马逊流域并且穿过惊险的峡谷和山脉区域。

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B When Bingham and his team set off down the Urubamba in late July, they had an advantage over travellers who had preceded them: a track had recently been blasted down the valley canyon to enable rubber to be brought up by mules from the jungle. B当Bingham和他的团队在7月下旬沿着乌鲁班巴河出发，他们比其他在他们之前的旅行者有一个优势：峡谷下最近有一条轨道被炸毁了，能够允许橡皮艇由骡子从丛林中搬运出来。 Almost all previous travellers had left the river at Ollantaytambo and taken a high pass across the mountains to rejoin the river lower down, thereby cutting a substantial corner, but also therefore never passing through the area around Machu Picchu. 之前几乎所有的旅行者都离开了位于Ollantaytambo的河流，并且高速穿越高山，再次进入下游的河道，因此大大抄了近路，但也因此从未经过马丘比丘的周边地区。

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C On 24 July they were a few days into their descent of the valley. C7月24日，距离他们降落到峡谷中已有几天。 The day began slowly, with Bingham trying to arrange sufficient mules for the next stage of the trek. 日子过得很慢，Bingham尝试为下一阶段的长途跋涉安排充足的骡子。 His companions showed no interest in accompanying him up the nearby hill to see some ruins that a local farmer, Melchor Arteaga, had told them about the night before. 他的同伴并没有什么兴趣和他一起爬附近的山去看一些废墟，这废墟是当地的一个农民Melchor Arteaga前一晚告诉他们的。 The morning was dull and damp, and Bingham also seems to have been less than keen on the prospect of climbing the hill. 第二天早晨阴暗又潮湿，Bingham也似乎对爬山没有了那么多兴趣。 In his book Lost City of the Incas, he relates that he made the ascent without having the least expectation that he would find anything at the top. 在他的《失落的印加城市》一书中，他叙述道自己登山并没有丝毫的期望，在山顶他会发现任何东西的期望。

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D Bingham writes about the approach in vivid style in his book. DBingham在书中生动地描述了这次攀登。 First, as he climbs up the hill, he describes the ever-present possibility of deadly snakes, ‘capable of making considerable springs when in pursuit of their prey’; not that he sees any. 起初，当他攀登到山顶的时候，他描绘了有可能经常存在的致命毒蛇，蛇在追逐猎物时能够如弹簧般弹出，他并没有看到这些毒蛇。 Then there’s a sense of mounting discovery as he comes across great sweeps of terraces, then a mausoleum, followed by monumental staircases and, finally, the grand ceremonial buildings of Machu Picchu. 随后，当他通过大面积的铺砌地面时，他感觉会有更多的发现。接着是一座陵墓，随后是巨大的石阶，最后是马丘比丘宏伟的礼仪性建筑。 ‘It seemed like an unbelievable dream ... the sight held me spellbound ...’ he wrote. 他写道：“这似乎是一个难以置信的梦…这些景象令我着迷…”

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E We should remember, however, that Lost City of the Incas is a work of hindsight, not written until 1948, many years after his journey. E但是，我们应该记得《失落的印加城市》是一部事后的作品，直到1948才写，这是他旅行之后很多年了。 His journal entries of the time reveal a much more gradual appreciation of his achievement. 他当时的日记记录的时间显示，他的发现是逐渐变得更有价值的。 He spent the afternoon at the ruins noting down the dimensions of some of the buildings, then descended and rejoined his companions, to whom he seems to have said little about his discovery. 他在废墟花了一个下午记录一些建筑物的尺寸，然后才下山和自己的伙伴汇合。他对自己的伙伴并没有怎么说到他的发现。 At this stage, Bingham didn’t realise the extent or the importance of the site, nor did he realise what use he could make of the discovery. 当时，Bingham并没有意识到这个遗址的重要性，他也没有意识到他能利用这次发现中的什么。

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F However, soon after returning it occurred to him that he could make a name for himself from this discovery. F 然而，在归来后不久，他突然意识到他可以从这次发现中让自己出名。 When he came to write the National Geographic magazine article that broke the story to the world in April 1913, he knew he had to produce a big idea. 1913年4月，国家地理杂志的文章在全球发行。当他开始为国家地理杂志写文章时，他觉得自己必须要发表一个重要想法。 He wondered whether it could have been the birthplace of the very first Inca, Manco the Great, and whether it could also have been what chroniclers described as ‘the last city of the Incas’. 他想知道这个发现是否是印加、曼大的发源地，是否这个发现将会成为编年史学家所描述的最后一个印加城市。 This term refers to Vilcabamba, the settlement where the Incas had fled from Spanish invaders in the 1530s. 这里最后一个印加城市指的是比尔卡班巴，它是印加人在十六世纪三十年代逃离西班牙侵略者后的定居点。 Bingham made desperate attempts to prove this belief for nearly 40 years. 将近40年以来，Bingham疯狂尝试着证明他的这一信念。 Sadly, his vision of the site as both the beginning and end of the Inca civilisation, while a magnificent one, is inaccurate. 遗憾的是，他对于这个遗址是印加文明起源和重点的看法是不准确的，尽管这个结论很宏大。 We now know that Vilcabamba actually lies 65 kilometres away in the depths of the jungle. 我们现在知道比尔卡班巴实际上位于丛林深处65公里开外。

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G One question that has perplexed visitors, historians and archaeologists alike ever since Bingham, is why the site seems to have been abandoned before the Spanish Conquest. ​​​G自从Bingham之后，一个令游客、历史学家和考古学家疑惑的问题是，为什么这个遗址看起来是被西班牙征服前就被遗弃的。 There are no references to it by any of the Spanish chroniclers - and if they had known of its existence so close to Cusco they would certainly have come in search of gold. 没有任何的西班牙编年史可以提供有关的参考，并且如果他们过去已经知道它是如此靠近库斯科，他们肯定会去寻找黄金。 An idea which has gained wide acceptance over the past few years is that Machu Picchu was a moya, a country estate built by an Inca emperor to escape the cold winters of Cusco, where the elite could enjoy monumental architecture and spectacular views. 在过去几年，人们普遍接受这样一个观点：马丘比丘是火山泥，是由一个印加国王为了避库思科寒冷的冬天所建立的一个乡村庄园，在那里，上层人物可以欣赏宏伟的建筑和壮观的景色。 Furthermore, the particular architecture of Machu Picchu suggests that it was constructed at the time of the greatest of all the Incas, the emperor Pachacuti (c. 1438-71). 再者，马丘比丘的特殊建筑表明它是在印加王国最鼎盛的时期，即国王帕查库蒂（大约1438-在位时建造的。 By custom, Pachacuti’s descendants built other similar estates for their own use, and so Machu Picchu would have been abandoned after his death, some 50 years before the Spanish Conquest. 按照惯例，帕查库蒂的后代建造了其他相似的庄园以供自己使用，因此在帕查库蒂去世后，马丘比丘就会被遗弃，这是在西班牙征服前50年的事情了。