On July 24, 1911, amidst the dense jungles and perilous slopes of the Peruvian Andes, an American academic named Hiram Bingham stumbled upon something that would astonish the world. Hidden under centuries of moss, fog, and vines stood an ancient city in the clouds—majestic, ghostly, untouched. Machu Picchu, once a whisper in Quechua legends and …