September 20, 2007—Yale University in Connecticut earlier this week agreed to return thousands of Machu Picchu artifacts to the government of Peru.

The university acquired the relics in the 1910s, when researcher Hiram Bingham rediscovered the grand Inca city. But last year Peru demanded the artifacts back, saying it had agreed to export the pieces only on the condition that they were returned.

The National Geographic Society, which helped fund Bingham's excavation of the site, sides with Peru in the dispute. (National Geographic News is part of the National Geographic Society.)

See the "lost city of the Incas," and learn more about the growing debate over who should own the world's archaeological treasures.