The principal museum is the Manuel Chávez Ballón Site Museum of Machu Picchu, which have more than 300 pieces between pottery and jewels made of gold, silver and copper.
When Hiram Bingham arrive to Machu Picchu, he took many pottery pieces and other artifacts that he found while he visited every place of the Sanctuary, and take them away and leave all his belongs to the Yale University. Until 2011, the Yale University was refused to return all the pieces to the Peruvian government, but little by little they are returning to the original owners.
And because of that tragic History, Machu Picchu wasn’t count with a variety of museums that contains all the pieces that were returned to the INC (National Institute of Culture).
The pieces that left show to the visitors are in storages to be classified and catalogued by date and period; this is not an easy task for the Archaeologist and Historians.
Other difficulty that the museum is going through is the lack of marketing and publicity, since the Museum is located on a side of the railroad stop, and the buses that only leave the people there, but not gave the necessary information to the tourists.
Time to visit: Monday to Friday, from 09am to 4.30pm.
Price: Foreign: 21s/. And local 11 s/.
Address: Ruinas Bridge, near the Old train station.