Huayna Picchu

This guide climbs Huayna Picchu, the sharp peak looming over Machu Picchu near Aguas Calientes, following the same route Hiram Bingham barely paused at in July 1911 while hunting for a different lost Inca capital. It traces what investigators found here the following year, finely cut walls clinging to a summit built not for defense but for the sky, likely reserved for high priests and the Virgins of the Sun under Pachacutec. Halfway down the far face, it leads into a hidden cave chamber Bingham simply called the Great Cave, later renamed by guides for the moon. Stand on the same knife-edge stairs the priests once climbed as the citadel opens beneath you.