Machu Picchu
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A team of explorers has discovered the ruins of a lost city in
Peru that has been hidden in a remote mountain jungle for
over 500 years. The city is called Cota Coca and it?s not far
from the well-known tourist site of Machu Picchu. The "coca"
refers to the coca leaf which grows there and was probably
used in religious rituals.
British explorer Hugh Thomson and his team found the lost
city, which he says is in a "remarkable state of
preservation.?
He?s amazed by his discovery and says, ?You're only going to
find a new Inca site once in your life."
Cota Coca?s ruins consist of about 30 stone buildings placed
around a central plaza. One structure is believed to be a
large meeting hall. "This is an important discovery, because
it is a sizeable center of good-quality late-Inca masonry,"
says John Hemming, an expert on the ancient Incas.
The newly discovered site is hidden at the bottom of a near-
inaccessible river canyon in dense jungle and is almost
inaccessible. This is what may save it in the long run, unlike
Machu Picchu, which is quickly being destroyed by the many
tourists who walk through it every year.
Like Machu Picchu, Cota Coca is located on a plateau above a
deep canyon. The nearby river and valley have become
impassable, so the expedition had to approach the city from
the mountains above, trekking for five days through thick
jungle. "Getting there was quite something," says Thomson.
In Inca times, the explorers say, there may have been a road
linking Cota Coca to the Inca city of Choquequirao. But it
may have always been an isolate fortress. Cota Coca was
probably one of the places the Incas escaped to while
retreating from Spanish invaders in 1532, before the Incas
were defeated 40 years later.
Is Atlantis in the New World? Find out by reading ?Atlantis in
America? by Ivar Zapp and George Erikson,
click here.
See news story ?Machu Picchu About to Collapse?,
click
here.
For more information, click here.
