Laser Technology Reveals Hidden Pre-Hispanic Roads at Machu Picchu
Archaeologists working near Machu Picchu identified more than 1.5 miles of pre-Hispanic roads and possible agricultural terraces and platforms using LiDAR, Peru’s Ministry of Culture announced on August 10. The discoveries come from preliminary survey work conducted in July and include an Inca-style road at least three-quarters of a mile long with a zigzagging route. Machu Picchu is believed to have been built in the 1420s and abandoned in the mid-1500s, and today it receives more than two million visitors annually as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The work is a collaboration between the University of Warsaw’s Center for Andean Studies and the Decentralized Directorate of Culture of Cusco, with future research planned to date and interpret the routes.
From This Briefing
This story was covered in Closures, Cuts, and Culture Under Siege