Machu Picchu, a lost city shrouded in clouds and swallowed by the jungle, was the hilltop refuge for a beleaguered Inca ruler and for "virgins of the Sun" fleeing Spanish conquistadors, Hiram Bingham wrote in soaring prose. Reality is less romantic.New scientific analysis has debunked many of Bingham's theories about Machu Picchu, the ruins of an ancient civilization the Yale archaeologist discovered in Peru in 1911.The abandoned site wasn't really a refugee hide-out. Instead, it was one pearl in a string of such retreats built for rich Inca rulers, this one for Pachacuti. And bodies buried in caves weren't primarily women. The short, delicate skeletons included men and women and - dashing the virgin myth - young children."It's hard to be a 'virgin of the Sun' if you have infants and children," said John W. Verano, a Tulane University physical anthropologist who recently re-examined the skeletal remains.

The exhibit "Machu Picchu: Unveiling the Mystery of the Incas," which opens Friday at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, showcases the power of a place with no written history to maintain its mystery.

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