I seriously doubt I could ever make that climb and hike

but it sounds glorious. When I was a kid I got a book called World's Last Mysteries, which was a Reader's Digest publication from the 70s. In it are wonderful artists' conceptions of how sites like Teotihuacan, Babel, Catal Huyuk, and Stonehenge looked when new. Oddly enough, there is no corresponding one of Machu Picchu, although it does show pictures of the ruins and discusses the history of it. I love that book. I still have it--as does a friend, as we discovered when comparing our collections. My favourite was Angkor Wat, with its canals. I'd love to go somewhere like this, but with my health problems and lack of funds, I'll be lucky if I ever make it out of the States. Still, a girl can dream.

The Hidden Route to Machu Picchu

A typical Machu Picchu package tour to Peru lasts a week. But anyone able to stretch that to two and a half weeks — and who has relatively sturdy legs — can hike in blissful solitude through roughly 100 miles of some of the world’s most varied and beautiful terrain while pausing to gawk at Bingham’s greatest hits. (April through October are the driest months to undertake such a trip; we traveled in October.) Best of all, by circumventing the most common approaches to Machu Picchu — the train from Cuzco and the Inca Trail — the Backdoor Route avoids the site’s notorious crowds almost entirely.