Cusco: A Complex Of Ancient Inca Platforms Discovered In Ollantaytambo, Peru

MessageToEagle.com – Guards and conservation workers at the Peñas archaeological site at Ollantaytambo archaeological park in the southern Peruvian region of Cuzco, have discovered a complex of ancient Inca platforms, a storeroom and a ceremonial court.

The find occurred in a rocky area totally covered by lush vegetation, archaeologist and park manager Oscar Montufar said.

The platforms covering approximately 5 hectares (12 acres) were built with different heights and lengths, and have cantilevered stairs and built-in stairways leading from one platform to the next, reports Fox News Latino.

We have cut away and removed the thick vegetation from the area and we will now proceed to make the corresponding study of the site. Later we will work up an emergency conservation project for this archaeological site whose existence was unknown up to now,” Montufar said.

Also found was a stone enclosure with one side built against an enormous boulder that was apparently used for ceremonial purposes, as well as rocky shelters for funerary rites and a storeroom for food, the latter very deteriorated.

Its state of ruin was caused during construction of the Cuzco-Quillabamba highway in 1933, officials said.

The platforms were probably built to contain eventual landslides, to expand agricultural land and for staging ceremonies.

In the future, “the newly discovered area” will be on the tourist trail of platforms and stone structures in the Peñas sector” of Ollantaytambo park, located some 61 kilometers (38 miles) from the city of Cuzco, the ancient capital of the Inca Empire.

Ollantaytambo is located at an altitude of 2,792 meters (9,160 feet) above sea level, at the northern end of the Sacred Valley, near Cusco, Peru.

MessageToEagle.com

source: Fox News Latino