Construction company denies destroying Inca wall

March 31, 2009

It has been two months since construction began on a 5-star Marriott hotel in the Andean city of Cusco, two blocks from the historic Plaza de Armas and its Inca architecture. Charged with constructing the building, Peruvian company Inversiones La Rioja has been accused of destroying an Inca wall in the process.

Local leader of a community group that protects the monuments in the area, César Bocángel, presented his complaint to authorities, with evidence that Inca blocks had been taken to a local dump with rubble from the construction process.

Representative of Inversiones La Rioja, Ana María Enríquez, denies any wrong doing. She claims the only Inca wall found at the site is being restored and will form part of the wall of two of the hotel’s suites. Any artefacts found, she claims, have been meticulously catalogued and preserved.

However, at the site of the dump in San Sebastión, Inca stones were indeed found, along with 40 fragments of ceramic pottery. Though the dump is used by the construction company, it is also used by countless others, and there is no way to tell where the material came from.

Specialists have been sent to the site of the construction, and no evidence of any damage to any ancient structure has been found.