NG Treasure Seekers - Lost Cities of the Inca (2000)

Peru, for centuries was home of the high civilizations of the Andes - here the Sun Kings of the Inca ruled over a vast empire which stretched for two thousand miles along the mountains of South America.
In 1532 the empire was destroyed with tragic ease by the Spanish. As their world crumbled around them, Inca nobles retreated into the hidden jungle of the inaccessible mountains. There they struggled to keep alive their culture in the last city of the Incas: Vilcabamba.
In 1911 Hiram Bingham, a young academic historian with a love of exotic destinations, set out to Peru in search of the legendary city of Vilcabamba, capital city of the last Inca ruler, Manco Inca. With a combination of doggedness and good fortune he stumbled on the perfectly preserved ruins of Machu Picchu perched on a cloud-capped ledge 2000 feet above the torrent of the Urubamba River. The buildings were of white granite, exquisitely carved blocks each higher than a man. Bingham had not, as it turned out, found Vilcabamba, but stumbled on one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the century - the magnificent ruins of Machu Picchu that opened up the glories of the Inca civilization to the entire world.