Question

review the details below.

• hiram bingham is generally said to have discovered machu picchu in 1911, but locals, including farmer melchor arteaga who led bingham there, were already aware of the incan ruins.
• carl haenel wrote a letter to the new york times claiming that he had been in machu picchu with german explorer j. m. von hassel a year before hiram bingham arrived in the area.
• some historians believe that german businessman augusto berns looted machu picchu four decades before hiram bingham visited the site.

choose the best topic sentence to introduce a paragraph containing these details.
the inca city machu picchu had been lost since ancient times until discovered by yale university professor hiram bingham.
just who should be credited with the discovery of machu picchu is the subject of some debate.
archaeologists consider machu picchu one of the most important finds in south america.

Explanation:

The details provided challenge the singular credit of Hiram Bingham as the discoverer (noting locals knew of the ruins, earlier visits by others, and prior looting claims). The topic sentence about debate over discovery credit directly introduces these conflicting claims.

Answer:

Just who should be credited with the discovery of Machu Picchu is the subject of some debate.