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In July of 1911,
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a 35-year-old Yale graduate and professor set out from his rainforest camp
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with his team.
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After climbing a steep hill
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and wiping the sweat from his brow,
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he described what he saw beneath him.
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He saw rising from the dense rainforest foliage
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this incredible interlocking maze of structures
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built of granite,
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beautifully put together.
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What's amazing about this project
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is that it was the first funded by National Geographic,
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and it graced the front cover of its magazine in 1912.
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This professor used state-of-the-art photography equipment
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to record the site,
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forever changing the face of exploration.
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The site was Machu Picchu,
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discovered and explored by Hiram Bingham.
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When he saw the site, he asked,
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"This is an impossible dream.
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What could it be?"
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So today,
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100 years later,
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I invite you all on an incredible journey with me,
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a 37-year-old Yale graduate and professor.
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(Cheers)
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We will do nothing less than use state-of-the-art technology
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to map an entire country.
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This is a dream started by Hiram Bingham,
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but we are expanding it to the world,
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making archaeological exploration more open, inclusive,
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and at a scale simply not previously possible.
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This is why I am so excited
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to share with you all today
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that we will begin the 2016 TED Prize platform
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in Latin America,
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more specifically Peru.
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(Applause)
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Thank you.
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We will be taking Hiram Bingham's impossible dream
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and turning it into an amazing future
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that we can all share in together.
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So Peru doesn't just have Machu Picchu.
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It has absolutely stunning jewelry,
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like what you can see here.
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It has amazing Moche pottery of human figures.
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It has the Nazca Lines
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and amazing textiles.
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So as part of the TED Prize platform,
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we are going to partnering with some incredible organizations,
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first of all with DigitalGlobe, the world's largest provider
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of high-resolution commercial satellite imagery.
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They're going to be helping us build out
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this amazing crowdsourcing platform they have.
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Maybe some of you used it
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with the MH370 crash and search for the airplane.
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Of course, they'll also be providing us with the satellite imagery.
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National Geographic will be helping us with education and of course exploration.
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As well, they'll be providing us with rich content for the platform,
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including some of the archival imagery like you saw at the beginning of this talk
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and some of their documentary footage.
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We've already begun to build and plan the platform,
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and I'm just so excited.
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So here's the cool part.
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My team, headed up by Chase Childs,
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is already beginning to look at some of the satellite imagery.
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Of course, what you can see here is 0.3-meter data.
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This is site called Chan Chan in northern Peru.
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It dates to 850 AD.
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It's a really amazing city, but let's zoom in.
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This is the type and quality of data that you all will get to see.
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You can see individual structures, individual buildings.
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And we've already begun to find previously unknown sites.
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What we can say already is that as part of the platform,
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you will all help discover thousands of previously unknown sites,
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like this one here,
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and this potentially large one here.
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Unfortunately, we've also begun to uncover large-scale looting at sites,
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like what you see here.
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So many sites in Peru are threatened,
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but the great part is that all of this data
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is going to be shared with archaeologists on the front lines
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of protecting these sites.
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So I was just in Peru, meeting with their Minister of Culture
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as well as UNESCO.
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We'll be collaborating closely with them.
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Just so you all know,
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the site is going to be in both English and Spanish,
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which is absolutely essential to make sure
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that people in Peru and across Latin America can participate.
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Our main project coprincipal investigator is the gentleman you see here,
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Dr. Luis Jaime Castillo,
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professor at Catholic University.
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As a respected Peruvian archaeologist and former vice-minister,
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Dr. Castillo will be helping us coordinate and share the data with archaeologists
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so they can explore these sites on the ground.
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He also runs this amazing drone mapping program,
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some of the images of which you can see behind me here and here.
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And this data will be incorporated into the platform,
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and also he'll be helping to image some of the new sites you help find.
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Our on-the-ground partner
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who will be helping us with education, outreach,
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as well as site preservation components,
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is the Sustainable Preservation Initiative,
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led by Dr. Larry Coben.
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Some of you may not be aware
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that some of the world's poorest communities
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coexist with some of the world's most well-known archaeological sites.
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What SPI does
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is it helps to empower these communities,
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in particular women,
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with new economic approaches and business training.
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So it helps to teach them to create beautiful handicrafts
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which are then sold on to tourists.
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This empowers the women to treasure their cultural heritage
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and take ownership of it.
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I had the opportunity to spend some time with 24 of these women
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at a well-known archaeological site called Pachacamac, just outside Lima.
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These women were unbelievably inspiring,
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and what's great is that SPI will help us transform communities
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near some of the sites that you help to discover.
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Peru is just the beginning.
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We're going to be expanding this platform to the world,
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but already I've gotten thousands of emails
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from people all across the world -- professors, educators, students,
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and other archaeologists -- who are so excited to help participate.
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In fact, they're already suggesting amazing places for us to help discover,
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including Atlantis.
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I don't know if we're going to be looking for Atlantis,
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but you never know.
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So I'm just so excited to launch this platform.
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It's going to be launched formally by the end of the year.
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And I have to say,
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if what my team has already discovered in the past few weeks are any indication,
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what the world discovers is just going to be beyond imagination.
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Make sure to hold on to your alpacas.
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Thank you very much.
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(Applause)
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Thank you.
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(Applause)