…en Perú - Travel Culture History News

Part of the Lima PreColombina series

The history of pre-Hispanic Lima is deeply entwined with Pachacamac. Worshipped across the central Andes since before the Inca conquest, the powerful creator god Pacha Kamaq is even revered today, almost 500 years after the Spanish conquest by Catholics in Lima. Today this powerful being has taken shape as the Cristo Morado and has been absorbed into Catholicism, and just as he is today, this ancient figure was also known as the Lord of the Earthquakes.

Two thousand years before Christ, the first ceremonial centres were built in the Lurín valley, constructed by people who’s descendants would eventually become, a couple of thousand years later, known as the Lima. The Lima’s society spanned from the valley of Chillón in the north to the valley of Lurín in the south. During this period at least one pyramid was build at this southern centre of power, and the population that lived around it dedicated themselves to worshipping Pacha Kamaq. We now refer to this ancient centre of worship as the Sanctuary of Pachacamac.

God of the Earth, this creator god worshipped by ancient Peruvians had the power to make the earth fertile but also to shake it violently with all his strength. Pacha Kamaq was not a god that people loved, he was not a caring nurturing father of the land, he was feared for the destruction he could cause in the form of earthquakes. People pleaded with him not to cause them harm.

Wari

Wari-period Templo Pintado, as it looked after excavation

The Wari (Huari), an Andean people who were also believers in Pacha Kamaq, formed what was perhaps the Andes’ first real empire. From Ayacucho they spread out to eventually take control of the sanctuary of Pachacamac, during which time it became the most important religious centre in all Peru. Pachacamac grew into a large city and more temples and pyramids were built. Left in a position of wealth and power, when the Wari Empire collapsed Pachacamac remained strong and important, receiving constant streams of pilgrims from across the Andes. People came from great distances to leave offerings in what we call today the Templo Viejo.

Inca

When the Incas brought Pachacamac under their control in the 1400s with an army led by Tupac Yupanqui, a task far easier than with the Guarco (Huarco) further south, the Incas were the ones forced to adapt. The Incas were foreigners throughout the vast majority of what is modern day Peru and their beliefs and religion were quite different.

The Templo del Sol, the huge Inca shrine to the sun

While the majority of Andean peoples north west of Lake Titicaca and Cusco worshipped Pachamama and Pachacamac, the Incas were sun worshippers, praying to their god the Inti who gave them light and life. But such was the strength and numbers of those who followed Pachacamac, the Incas were forced to bring this god into their own belief system and stories in order to control the population. Inti, the sun god, became the father of Pachacamac. The Inti was benevolent while Pachacamac was the feared bringer of earthquakes. The Incas build a number of new constructions at Pachacamac, including the Templo Nuevo, the Templo del Sol and the site’s famous Acllawasi.

Spanish

A year after Francisco Pizarro and his men arrived in Peru and captured Atahualpa, holding him ransom for rooms filled of gold and silver, the first Spaniards arrived in Pachacamac. 25 men led by Hernando Pizarro, brother of Francisco, and Miguel de Estete who chronicled much of the Spanish conquest, had come to collect part of the ransom of Atahualpa.

The Spaniards spent a night in one of the city’s most impressive buildings, the palace of local Inca ruler Tauri Chumpi. While there, Hernando Pizarro learnt of this feared god that went by the name of Pachacamac and demanded to be taken to the temple in which stood his idol.

He wrote;

“This mosque was so feared by all the Indians. The cave in which the idol was located was so dark that one could not enter without candlelight, and inside it was very dirty. I made all the local rulers enter so that they might loose that fear. In their presence I gave my sermon, explaining the lies with which they were living.”

He then threw the idol to the ground and placed in its place the Christian cross.

A year later Francisco Pizarro himself arrived, fresh from conquering the city of Cusco. Following Inca trails from Cusco to Jauja, then over the mountains and along the Lurín valley he arrived with his men in Pachacamac, looking for a new capital. He sent three emissaries into the valley of Limaq, where he later joined them and founded the city of Los Reyes, later to be known as Lima.

The Spaniard Roridgo Rodoñes was left in charge of the valley and its population. He used the indigenous as slaves, tortured and killed them for entertainment and forced them to raid the tombs of their ancestors and present him with the gold. He forbade their traditional beliefs and religion forcing them to adhere to the rules and customs of Christianity. Amid this horrendous abuse, many people fled, and the ancient city of Pachacamac was abandoned.

Colonial Period

In a pattern repeated across Peru, where the indigenous were forced out of their towns and cities to live in newly constructed Spanish towns, with Spanish architecture, churches and a plaza, so to were the people of Pachacamac who remained. Many were taken to a town called Pachacamilla, located just outside colonial Lima. Here the townspeople secretly continued to practice their religion in secret, continuing to worship Pachacamac. To get away with it, they went to church and prayed to the Christ of Pachacamilla, a figure they had created in the image of Pachacamac. They prayed to this Christ figure to keep them safe from earthquakes, and even referred to him as the Lord of the Earthquakes.

Later, with the arrival of slaves brought from Africa, a number eventually settled in Pachacamilla. Here the Africans took on the traditions of the indigenous who lived there, diluting the secret worship of Pachacamac until it was forgotten and the Christ really did represent Christ. It was here that an unknown Angolan slave in the 1650s painted an image of a black Christ on a wall of Las Nazarenas Church, an image of the Christ of Pachacamilla. The Catholic church considered the painting of a black Christ an act of heresy, erasing the image, an image that unknown to almost everyone really represented Pacha Kamaq.

Shortly afterwards came a terrible earthquake, one of the worst in Peru’s history. Most of Lima was levelled, except for one wall in Pachacamilla… a single wall of Las Nazarenas church, the wall on which was painted the Lord of the Earthquakes.

A story from Inca times;

Pachacamac created the first man and woman, but didn’t give them the food necessary to survive. The man died of hunger. The woman pleaded to Inti, the sun god and father of Pachacamac to help her, who agrees, giving her the food she needs but at the same time impregnating her, giving her a son.

Pachacamac was furious that his father meddled in his affairs, and killed the woman’s son. Parts of the son’s remains are buried across the Andean world, and from these grew the foods of Peru’s now-fertile lands.

The woman complained to the Inti, explaining what had happened, asking for another son and for the Inti’s protection. The son was granted and he was named Vichama, who when grown sets off to explore the Andean world. When he returns he finds that his beloved mother has been killed by Pachacamac. The furious son sets off to find Pachacamac, searching everywhere without rest. Pachacamac was terrified by the ferocity of this man and hid. But Vichama was looking everywhere, the only place left to hid was the sea. He threw himself into the sea and was converted into a series of small rocky islands, today known as the Islas de Pachacamac.

Archaeology

Everything we know about the site of Pachacamac is thanks to Max Uhle who was the first person to begin studies of the immense site in 1896, starting a process of learning that continues today. The beautiful preservation of the Acllawasi, the building in which the Inca’s chosen women lived, is thanks to another great archaeologist by the name of Julio C. Tello.

The site lies just south of Lima, reached from districts like Miraflores in less than 30 minutes. Most of the site is in a terrible state, as are most of Peru’s adobe structures. It can be explored on foot, or on hot days by car. The highest temple, overlooking the ocean, is found furthest away from the site’s entrance - this is the Incas Templo del Sol. Further down back towards the entrance is the Templo Pintado, the temple which retains most of its original decoration - for all these buildings were decorated brightly and beautifully. To it’s left was the Templo Viejo that housed the idol of Pachacamac, one of the oldest structures. Following this road takes you to Tauri Chumpi’s palace, then, turning back towards the entrance, you pass two pyramids. The Acllawasi, just behind the entrance to the site is the first or last construction you will see at this amazing ancient city.

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I’ve been spending a lot of time in central Lima recently, so naturally I have been using a significant amount of that time to eat. After serious study, I have come to the conclusion that the best place to eat in central Lima is… drum roll… El Fayke Piurano.

Outside El Fayke Piurano

Just half a block along Jirón Huancavelica, turning off to the left from Jirón de la Union if walking towards the Plaza de Armas, El Fayke Piurano serves up some of the best seafood in Lima.

It doesn’t look much from the outside and it doesn’t appear all that different from the thousands of cheapish restaurants that line the beautiful but noisy old colonial streets of central Lima. Although, it’s true, you’ll eat amazing food in any of these places, El Fayke is something special.

The decoration is nothing special… this is a simple place for ordinary local people. While you’ll be wise to avoid seafood, particularly uncooked or room temperature fish in the more run down parts of town, El Fayke is pleasantly clean.

Inside El Fayke Piurano

The menu is long, and you can’t go wrong with your choice. From a ceviche de cojinova to a arroz con mariscos, the servings are just as huge as the list of dishes to try. Service is fast, and the staff attentive. Most importantly, the prices are fair - any good meal over 25 soles per person in Peru is probably paying too much. In El Fayke, you’ll leave food on your plate and often pay far less than that.

Grumo from Brooklyn posts on TripAdvisor:

Two different sources said that Fayke is the place to have ceviche in the central part of Lima. When first we heard about it from a tourist office, we became cynical about a such a straight-forward this-is-the-place-to-go referral. We walked into a fine hotel and asked where the desk person recommended and we again heard Fayke. So we figured that we should give it a try.

Fayke is not huge. When you first see it it does not seem to be a special place recommended by others. You can get a good ceviche for 18s and up. First of all the portions are big. Not that that is a reason to go to a restaurant, but neither of us could finish our plate.

I had a mixed ceviche for 20s that also was fun just to look at. There was a good variety of fish and seafood, including what I think was a crayfish to literally top it off. The dish was nicely set off with a chunk of beautifully orange sweet potato. There were two types of beans. I hate to admit how excited I was thinking I was having lima beans in Lima!

Tamalito Verde con su salsa criolla

Well done tourist office! Lima is one of the world’s gastronomic hotspots and tourists should be encouraged to explore it’s out of the way high-quality traditional restaurants. Peru has the largest variety of dishes in the world, 468 according to the Guinness Book of Records, and most of them can be tried in Lima. If there is one thing tourists should do while in Lima it is eat.

Kirk knew this.

A few months back, the Missus and I decided on a trip to Peru. It was the perfect country for us…..a great combination of food, history, culture, and more food!

After checking in at our hotel, totally famished, we headed off for our first meal in Peru. I had intentionally made reservations at a hotel close to a restaurant I wanted to try….. yes, I know, a bit backwards……but since this was just a place to crash for evening….. Right around the block was El Fayke Piurano. Read the review »

Arroz con Mariscos

I’m looking for another excuse to be in central Lima around lunch time.

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Two ancient temples thought to be about 3,000 years old, from the time when high civilisation established itself in northern Peru, have been uncovered in the archaeological complex of Collud-Zarpán.

Stairs on Collud's northern face

The two structures, located in the northern region of Lambayeque, are separated by some 100 metres of modern farm land but could once have been connected, forming part of a great ceremonial complex - a theory put forward by Peruvian Archaeologist Ignacio Alva, who is in charge of Collud-Zarpán excavations.

The two temples belong to the Cupisnique culture that developed in the region between 3000 and 2000BC. With mud foundations 150m long and 70 metres wide, the temple of Collud is the largest of the two constructions. It has a central stairway leading to the top that is 25 metres long consisting of 25 steps, but most impressive is the surviving mural with representations of a divine figure.

Mural on the Collud temple

“This diety is a mix of feline and human, spider and bird and is logically their principle god”, states Ignacio, son of the legendary Walter Alva who discovered the famous tombs of the Lord of Sipan.

At the Zarpán temple, Ignacio tells us that they have found the façade of a minor temple built with stone that measures 50m in length and is 2.5 metres high.

The Collud and Zarpán temples are from a time of consolidation of high civilisation in northern Peru, whereas the nearby temple of Ventarrón, which last year it was discovered to be 4500 years old, is from a time when the first civilisations where only just beginning to form.

The three archaeological complexes that cover an area of 40km2 en total, formed part of an ancient centre of civilisation in the valley of Lambayeque, “that was one of the largest of the Peruvian coast, with the best water engineering and best soil quality”, explains Ignacio.

Discover more of Peru’s fascinating ruins here

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In November 2002, I was blessed with being invited to Chinchero to help plant papas. Puma and his family and others all work together to get the job done. The clouds come in with rain and sleet, then they burn some brush to send the clouds and rain away. - crickethanna

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Every tourist who visits the colonial heart of Lima visits the San Francisco convent and descends into the depths of its catacombs, filled with the bones of the first generations of Spanish settlers.

When the city of Lima was founded by Francisco Pizarro in 1535 he was under orders to set aside a vast area of the city for the Franciscan order to build their church and convent. On what was a huge piece of land, Friar Francisco de la Cruz raised a small temporary chapel before having to leave Lima. With no other Franciscan in the area the chapel was abandoned and handed to the Dominicans. In 1546 the Franciscans returned and successfully reclaimed their land. The church then built here was adapted over the years to become one of the most beautiful examples of Spanish colonial architecture… before being completely levelled by an earthquake in 1655. Rebuilding began in 1657 under the architectural guidance of Constantino de Vasconcellos, the new church was inaugurated in 1672 with a grand ceremony in which all the city celebrated.

Above ground

Vasconcellos had to figure out a way to make the new building earthquake proof, and he did so with a mixture of Spanish design in the form of a barrel vault foundation and indigenous materials in the form of quincha - a flexible adobe blend.

The new building was crowned with a beautiful dome carved out of cedar wood. There’s not a decadent idolic image anywhere to be seen… this dome is in Islamic style and decorated with geometric patterns, a style brought to Spain by the Moors.

The church is also home to one of Lima’s most important libraries. Built in the 18th century, 25 thousand volumes of books are found here, many are now almost 500 years old. The furniture found here is original, the cedar-wood chairs and tables were once used by Franciscans when studying.

The convent is filled with historic art, but one painting in particularly captivating. At the end of a large dining room is a painting of The Last Supper. It offers a slightly different take on events… the disciples can be seen eating guinea pig, rocoto chillies, papayas and yuca.

Catacombs

The small city of Lima had, since its foundation, no proper place to bury its dead. It was left up to the city’s churches to arrange burial and the obvious place was beneath the churches themselves, often seen by believers as a sure way to get into heaven.

As the largest church, San Francisco had to deal with the greatest number of people. Vast underground recesses were built that stretched out under the church and even as far as the Presidential Palace and the Desamparados train station.

Whether poor or affluent, every citizen was accommodated and the catacombs eventually came to house 25,000 bodies before a proper city cemetery was built in Rimac. Lost in time, the galleries and passages that make up this subterranean graveyard were reopened and restored in 1947 and are now open to the public to visit.

A tour down into the dark narrow passages, their low ceilings and arches, takes you through dozens of burial chambers. The most astonishing sights are the ten metre deep pits that are filled with arranged human bones. Skulls, femurs and tibiae are all on show - these are the remains of Lima’s poorer Spanish settlers, the new generations of mixed Spanish and indigenous, and of slaves and servants.

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Ceviche in San Francisco USA

Talented food critic taster Juancho (critics criticise while Juancho praises) of Camina El Autor was recently able to visit Peruvian celebrity chef Gastón Acurio’s and wife Astrid Gutche’s newly opened La Mar restaurant in San Francisco - the first in North America. Receiving rave reviews, Juancho adds his opinion.

The original La Mar was opened by Acurio a few years ago in Lima, on Ave. La Mar, in Miraflores (with Pescados Capitales just a few blocks away, the area is becoming a high-end seafood mecca). The restaurant in San Francisco’s Pier 1½ is the first of what are projected to be several La Mar’s throughout the continent (Santiago, México, and San José locales are in the works) as well as Acurio’s first US restaurant. It is not any exaggeration to say that it has been one of the most anticipated openings in the city.

The restaurant itself is comprised of four spaces: a pisco bar near the entrance, followed by the cebiche bar, and the main dinning room; outside, through a set of French doors, there is an al fresco dining area overlooking the water. We chose to eat in the main room.

[...]

Next came a tasty, but small, Tiradito criollo, comprised of thin slices of fish bathed in a creamy sauce of lime juice, ají amarillo, and habanero pepper. Despite the ingredient list, it was not very spicy, the cooks having done a nice job of attenuating the peppers’ heat while retaining their flavor characteristics in the sauce. I’ve got to say that it was the best cebiche I’ve had north of Ecuador.

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Peruvian Gossip Queen Magaly Medina will not be torturing (often guilty) celebrities with paparazzi and hidden cameras any time soon - one particular vicious attempt of defamation repeated over the course months of her TV show and magazine, probably entirely justified, has landed her in jail for the unprecedented time of 5 months while her TV producer Ney Guerrero got off “lightly” with a “mere” 3 months.

Rachel Gamarra explains;

The whole legal debacle started nearly a year ago when a scandal involving the Peruvian National Soccer Team’s sexual rendezvous at a posh hotel paid for by the Federation came to the public’s attention. If there’s one thing that anybody in Peru knows is that the National Soccer Team is never shy of a shameful scandal!

Medina accused pretty boy Paulo Guerrero, a member of the team, of sneaking out of the hotel to go wine and dine a Peruvian model at U.S. based restaurant chain, TGIFridays in the Limean district of Miraflores. On her program Medina presented videographic evidence that was later debunked by the Federation. (Talk about an impartial investigation!)

Magaly still contests that the photographic evidence was taken at 2am the day before the big game and not 2 days before as Peru’s national coach claims or 7pm the day before as Paulo Guerrero claimed. In all honesty, I think is entirely plausible that the shots were taken 2am considering all of Peru’s footballers spend their time back home partying and losing matches rather than training and winning matches. Despite having some great players, evidenced by their huge salaries in Europe, when they put on their national shirts they are too hung-over to play and often couldn’t care less - there are no fat bonuses for performance for the national team, so why bother winning, right? When playing for Peru, they are only paid tens of thousands of dollars, not millions, so there could not possibly be any obligation to try to win, could there? Surely Peru has money to burn on losers.

Paulo Guerrero (Hamburger SV), clearly irritated in a press conference, denied the allegations and shortly after proceeded to file suit against Medina for civil damages and defamation.

Guerrero won his case against Medina, who was ordered to pay S/.80,000 (PEN) in civil damages. For Guerrero’s father justice hasn’t been served. S/.80,000 (PEN) and a 5 month jail sentence for Medina and a 3 month subsequent jail sentence for her producer, Ney Guerrero (no relation to Paulo Guerrero), was insufficient for father, José Guerrero.

S/.80,000 (PEN) OR $26K in USD is chump change when your son is making MILLIONS OF EUROS playing in Europe and receiving THOUSANDS OF USD for embarrassing and losing for Peru! José Guerrero told the press that Magaly Medina can no longer feel “All Powerful.” As for his son feeling “All Powerful,” well that comes with the territory of being an international soccer star.

Smoke screens and conspiracies

The story goes deeper than just a playboy millionaire footballer successfully getting away with being a playboy millionaire footballer rather than a talented professional match winner, and deeper than an excuse for a journalist getting some pay back for all the times she laughed at those with dirty secrets that she brought down, making her rich in the process.
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The human body is an imperfect machine. We can walk and we can run, but the moment arrives when we sprain our knees and our legs are too tired to go on. We are able to see objects clearly whether they are far or near, but almost all of us encounter problems with our vision at some point in our lives. The same happens with the bones.

From birth, the cells that naturally destroy the damaged bone live in harmony with those that form new bone. However, once we pass our 30s a disbalance occurs and new bone is created slower that old bone is destroyed.

In women this process is sped up by the menopause. The bones loose density and become weak and porous, a process called osteoporosis. Usually doctors prescribe hormone replacement therapy, increasing the oestrogen in the body to slow down the process. However, in some cases, although it is effective and reduces the possibility of bone fractures, it can also affect other organs and increases the risk of breast and uterus cancer.

Introduction to Maca

A year ago a group of medical researchers from Peru’s Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, headed by Carla Gonzales, decided to study an ancient plant that they suspected could have positive affects on human bones.

Domesticated in Peru millennia ago, Maca was an essential crop for use in the alimentation of ancient Peruvians. Its affects on the body were numerous. It raised energy levels - Inca warriors would consume it before battles and messengers would consume it to be able to run up and down mountains day after day, old people who consumed it would work in the fields as if they were young. It would ward-off disease, increase fertility and could even be used to treat depression.

With the Spanish conquest and the passing of time, its benefits and uses would be almost forgotten and it was planted less and less. In 1961 the Maca plant was on the edge of extinction, only saved when Peruvian biologist Gloria Chacón began to study its amazing properties. Thanks to her, we have added to the list Maca’s ability to;

• Increase sperm production
• Enhance memory
• Reduce the size of the prostate in older men
• Protect against the damaging effects of ultraviolet light from the sun

But not all Maca is equal. Just like there are countless variations of that other Andean crop, the potato, Maca has eleven varieties, distinguishable by the colour of its root. The most studied for its effects are the Red and the Black. “The black maca is a more of a sperm producer while the red acts more on the prostate for example. We decided to study the red maca because it has an affect on oestrogen regulation, the hormone vital for the health of the bones”, Gonzales explained.

Specifically Osteoporosis

The first scientific discovery regarding maca and osteoporosis was in 2006 when Chinese scientist Yong-zhong Zhang studied the affects of maca on rats that had been induced with osteoporosis. It was this that inspired the Peruvian investigators to delve deeper. They wanted to compare the effects of red maca against the traditional treatment of hormone replacement with the synthetic estradiol. They induced osteoporosis in 30 lab rats and treat half of them with red maca and the other half with hormone replacement.

The rats on maca developed an incredible capacity for bone regeneration, far greater than those rats on traditional treatment.

“With estadiol the pores in the bone shrunk and the affects of the osteoporosis diminished. With the maca the same happened, but on a far greater scale. But the biggest benefit is that the weaving of the bone is not damaged like it is with hormone replacement. Whatsmore, maca is far less expensive”.

Gonzales predicts that within years, red maca will replace traditional treatment for osteoporosis around the world. The team, having successfully found a way to revert bones damaged by osteoporosis to healthy status, are now looking into the affects of maca on other oestrogen-related organs such as the breast and uterus.

Exports of Maca are on the increase as treatments and medicines are developed that make use of the plant. The team of researchers have developed an extract that can be taken as a food supplement. These sachets developed by the team contain the equivalent of ten whole maca roots, reduced to 30 grams.

“It is recommended that one sachet is consumed daily for sufficient effect (no less if you are replacing traditional therapy), mix it with fruit juice as red maca has a very strong taste”, Gozales indicates. “Many doctors are now prescribing it. We are exporting to the United States and Asia. There’s a lot of interest in natural medicine and in reducing the use of chemical composites in drugs. It is also of huge benefit to the thousands of rural workers that grow maca in the Andes above 4,000m of altitude. It is a blessing”.

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The Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, can be found on the Avenida Venezuela that leads from Lima to Callao. Here in a run-down industrial zone that was once the pre-hispanic city of Maranga, is a fairly large campus with not entirely attractive post-60s buildings. Little would suggest that this institution is the oldest university in the Americas.

San Marcos was founded in 1551 as the Real y Pontificia Universidad de la Ciudad de los Reyes de Lima (Real and Pontifical University of the City of the Kings of Lima), less than two decades after the founding of the city of Lima. With a royal decree issued by the King of Spain Carlos I and with a papal bull, it claims to be the first officially recognised university in the Americas - Santo Domingo’s was founded first at the time of the conquest of Peru, but didn’t receive recognition from the King until afterwards.

La Casona

Presided over by Friar Juan Bautista de la Roca, the first classes took place on the 2nd of January 1553 in the Dominican convent of Nuestra Señora del Rosario. The university then moved several times. First moving to the San Marcelo convent not far away, then found a new “permanent” home in the Plaza del Estanque, the fenced-off plaza where Congress is now located. As the city of Lima grew during the industrial revolution, President Manuel Pardo was forced to move the university in the 1870s to what was at that time nearer the edge of the city, to an old Jesuit monastery called the Convictorio de San Carlos, otherwise called La Casona.

I visited La Casona, now a cultural centre, only to find I had walked past it dozens of times to rich Av. Abancay from Jr. Lampa. I had seen a large sign on the wall many times stating that the building was undergoing restoration work paid for in part by the Spanish Government (who frankly should be doing a lot more). The result was wonderful. The building is now in very good condition and looks stunning.

Posing in La Casona, 1896

In the 1960s it moved to its present location halfway between Lima and Callao. Again, in those days, this area was suburban, mostly consisting of small residential areas and fields around the pyramids of the city of Maranga. In the 60s and for some time afterwards, many Peruvians considered archaeological sites worthless. San Marcos did a lot of damage, even destroying one pyramid to build a stadium.

The Municipality of Lima in the past months have been extending the Avenida Venezuela and in doing so had to remove the outer wall of the university and use a couple of metres of its land, provoking a furious reaction from students despite the municipality having received permission. The extension of the road also involved slicing through the Huaca San Marcos pyramid, and it is this part of the plan that has led to work being abandoned. Thankfully Peru’s usually incompetent cultural institute, the INC, has done its job correctly.

As well as being ferocious protesters, the students of San Marcos are also very capable. Getting into the university is very difficult, in fact, entry is near impossible for all but the very brightest students, mostly due to the fact that in Peru, if you are capable, university is free.

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Nazca pyramid discovered

Updated here.

A new remote sensing technology has peeled away layers of mud and rock near Peru’s Cahuachi desert to reveal an ancient adobe pyramid, Italian researchers announced on Friday at a satellite imagery conference in Rome.

Nicola Masini and Rosa Lasaponara of Italy’s National Research Council (CNR) discovered the pyramid by analysing images from the satellite Quickbird, which they used to penetrate the Peruvian soil.

The researchers investigated a test area along the river Nazca. Covered by plants and grass, it was about a mile away from Cahuachi’s archaeological site, which contains the remains of what is believed to be the world’s biggest mud city.

Via Quickbird, Masini and colleagues collected hi-resolution infra-red and multi spectral images. After the researchers optimized the images with special algorithms, the result was a detailed visualization of a pyramid extending over a 9,000-square-mile area.

The discovery doesn’t come as a surprise to archaeologists, since some 40 mounds at Cahuachi are believed to contain the remains of important structures.

“We know that many buildings are still buried under Cahuachi’s sands, but until now, it was almost impossible to exactly locate them and detect their shape from an aerial view,” Masini told Discovery News. “The biggest problem was the very low contrast between adobe, which is sun-dried earth, and the background subsoil.”

Cahuachi is the best-known site of the Nazca civilization, which flourished in Peru between the first century B.C. and the fifth century A.D. and slid into oblivion by the time the Inca Empire rose to dominate the Andes.

Read the rest of this entry at Discovery.com »

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