Arts & Entertainment
 

Exhibit brings ancient Incans to life in Houston

‘Machu Picchu' allows exploration of ruins with models, interactive stations, photos

By Tony Hernandez
The Daily Cougar

Hiram Bingham was a Harvard graduate and professor at Yale who traveled to Peru in 1908 to research Simon Bolivar, a man known for his roles in many South American revolutions. Bingham's research led to Cusco, where he made an acquaintance who enthralled him with stories of the "last resting place of the Incas" or the lost city of Vilcabamba.

Two years later, Bingham returned to Cusco determined to find this lost city. His journey through Peruvian jungles and deep rivers led him to the Urubamba Valley and an 11-year-old boy named Pablito Alvarez. The boy told him of extensive ruins at the top of a nearby ridge.

Bingham, Alvarez and an armed escort climbed the steep mountain, passing along hundreds of terraces and what Bingham quickly identified as Incan architecture. When they finally reached the peak, Bingham saw a series of more than 150 buildings of various sizes that had been swallowed by the jungle for hundreds of years. Everything was basically intact and untouched.

Bingham had been led to Machu Picchu.

Today, scientists know that Machu Picchu was not the fabled Vilcabamba. Instead, it's one of the few unaltered remains of a civilization destroyed by Spanish conquistadors.

The natural beauty and awe of Machu Picchu can only be truly understood by personally visiting the ruins in Peru. But through Sept. 6, the Houston Museum of Natural Science has an excellent exhibit that explains the Incan culture in great detail and explores today's understanding of why Machu Pichhu was built.

Organized by the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, Machu Picchu: Unveiling the Mysteries of the Incas boasts the largest exhibition of Incan artifacts ever assembled in the United States. Among the artifacts, visitors will see pottery, clothing, jewelry and various ceremonial tools. Those who have visited Machu Picchu and have had a difficult time finding a large amount of quality artifacts and relics in museums close to the ruins in Cusco, Peru, may see this exhibit as a chance to fill in those gaps.

After seeing an introductory video, visitors are led to large wall-size pictures of the ruins. Once visitors pass the pictures, they can enter a room that shows a full-scale model of Machu Pichhu. A video behind the model then begins and highlights the various buildings in the model and offers theories about their purpose.

There is an interactive station with three computers where visitors can explore Machu Picchu at their own pace in a three-dimensional walk-through of the ruins. These stations will be a hit among people who've been there because they'll be able to reminisce about the different spots they've personally explored at Machu Picchu.

Another area explores the Incan/Spanish relationship. Visitors will see beautiful Spanish paintings of Incan kings and writings in Spanish journals describing their view of Incan people.

Toward the end of the exhibit attendees will see current scientific methods that study human remains found at Machu Picchu.

Lastly, there is an area in which kids can do further exploration and hands-on activities, including practicing an Incan record keeping method using strings. On certain days, the exhibit will include live llamas; Incans used them to help with farming and in fur for clothing.

The exhibit does an excellent job examining Machu Pichhu. It caters well to people who have never heard of these ruins as well as people who have personally been there. Bingham may have not found his beloved Vilcabamba, but because of his discovery, researchers today know more than ever about the Incans and thousands have been awestruck.

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