1961 Machu Picchu, Peru. This ruin in its spectacular mountain setting has become the icon for Peru and its wonderful Inca heritage. I was lucky to reach the site before serious tourism began.

Machu Picchu was drawn to world attention in 1911 when the American Yale University scholar Hiram Bingham reached it during a scientific expedition, though he was not the first to get there. A National Geographic Magazine of 1913 has many of his pictures of the site before the vegetation was cleared.

The Temple of Three Windows built from hand worked granite is in the northwest of the site and has a view towards the Urubamba Cordillera. The snowcap of Mt Veronica is just visible in the clouds 15kms away. Each of the three windows is 1.3 metres high and overlook the principal plaza. In the middle of the picture a large hand-worked pillar of granite stands beside an altar, and just visible on the bottom right is a large sacred stone. Local lore suggests that the three windows reflect the Inca creation myth. The first Inca is said to have emerged from a central opening in a hillside called Tamputoco closer to Cuzco.

Camera: MPP Microflex Twin Lens Reflex with F3.5 77.5mm Taylor Taylor Hobson lens with light yellow filter x 1. Film Kodak Verichrome Pan at F11 - 1/125 second. Developed by hand in Lima, using May and Baker Promicrol at normal dilution.

Negative: Peru 61-01-05 © Tony Morrison