Explorers Rediscover Incan City Near Machu Picchu

An Anglo-American team of explorers have found an Incan city lost for
centuries in the Peruvian jungles despite being within sight of the key
religious center at Machu Picchu.
Using infrared aerial photography to penetrate the forest canopy, the
team led by Briton Hugh Thomson and American Gary Zeigler located the
ruins at Llactapata 50 miles northwest of the ancient Incan capital,
Cusco.

"This is a very important discovery. It is very close to Machu Picchu
and aligned with it. This adds significantly to our knowledge about
Machu Picchu," Thomson told Reuters by telephone Thursday. "Llactapata
adds to its significance." The site was first mentioned by explorer
Hiram Bingham, the discoverer of Machu Picchu, in 1912. But he was very
vague about its location, and the ruins have lain undisturbed ever
since. After locating the city from the air, the expedition used
machetes to hack through the jungle to reach it, 9,000 feet up the side
of a mountain. They found stone buildings including a solar temple and
houses covering several square miles in the same alignment with the
Pleiades star cluster and the June solstice sunrise as Machu Picchu,
which was a sacred center. "This gives the site great ritual
importance," Thomson said. Not only was Llactapata probably a
ceremonial site in its own right, excavations suggested that it might
also have acted as a granary and dormitory for its sacred neighbor, he
added. The Incas abandoned their towns and cities and retreated from
the treasure-hunting Spanish invaders after the Conquistadors captured
and executed the last Incan leader, Tupac Amaru, in 1572. Some of the
cities have since been rediscovered, but many more are believed to lie
hidden in the dense jungle, almost impossible to detect without new
technology or a chance encounter. Last year, the expedition found
another lost Incan town at Cota Coca, about 60 miles west of Cusco.
"The fact that we have found two in two years means there could be many
more out there," Thomson said. He said the use for the first time of an
infrared camera to locate a set of ruins from the air had been a
breakthrough, but one that did not make the humble machete redundant.
"It makes wielding the machete slightly more purposeful -- at least you
know where you are going and that there is something definitely in
front of you -- but it certainly won't put it out of business," Thomson
said.

Posted by flow Frazao on November 6, 2003 at 01:17 PM | Permalink