Machu Picchu
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In the wake of news about the 7.9 scale earthquake in Peru,
a new disaster for the country has been revealed: the
ancient city of Machu Picchu is about to fall off its mountain
perch into destruction. A leading Peruvian archeologist, Dr.
Frederico Kauffmann, has accused the government of failing
to act on a recent Japanese survey showing that urgent
action is needed to save the ancient Inca city.
According to the report, there are alarming signs that the
mountainside beneath the city could give way in a potentially
catastrophic landslide within the next few years. ?Machu
Picchu is constructed over a place that is moving inside. It?s
terrible,? says Kauffmann. ?According to the Japanese, this
phenomena is going now very quickly, so if we follow the
Japanese, in 5, 10 or perhaps 15 more years, we won?t have
Machu Picchu any more.?
Researchers from the Disaster Prevention Research Institute
at the Kyoto University in Japan set up sensitive instruments,
buried in the steepest slopes around the city. They found
that the ground was moving and that the movement was
exaggerated by excessive rainfall, as well as construction
work at a hotel beneath the site. The city itself shows
evidence of problems. The Incas were master stonemasons
who crafted walls out of massive blocks of granite fitted
together so tightly than it?s impossible to slip a piece of paper
between them. But now gaps have begun to appear in the
walls, due to the earth movement beneath them.
The National Institute of Culture which administers Machu
Picchu says the problem is not a drastic one. ?This is nothing
new,? says the executive director Ricardo Ruiz. ?The Incas
were aware of just how unstable the region was when they
started building 500 years ago. They were careful to protect
the city when they built the foundations, and they did such a
good job that there?s very little damage to Machu Picchu until
now?So for us to take radical action after a study that lasts
just 2 or 3 months would be irresponsible.?
Approximately 700,000 tourists visit Machu Picchu every
year, and Kauffmann is afraid that Peru is about to lose its
most important treasure. ?The solution isn?t to hide the
problem but to confront it, to see if the Japanese are right,?
he says. ?If they are not right, then we are okay, but maybe
they are right. We can?t afford to ignore them.?
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