Peru Archive

Feature Articles –   Viracocha’s voyage Macchu Picchu, Nazca, Tiahuanaco… Though the major monuments of Peru are mapped and known – though the jungle continues to surrender some of its secrets even today – so far these spell-binding monuments have largely been looked upon in isolation, without trying to interlock the various monuments with each other – let alone possible interoperability. by Philip Coppens For many …

Feature Articles –   Fake porn The Peruvian Ullo temple with its giant phalli seemed to good to be true – a largely intact temple in which a cult of fertility had survived the onslaught of Christianity? Recently, it has been made obvious that it was indeed too good to be true… by Philip Coppens The Inca Ullo temple in Chucuito was not on our tour …

Feature Articles –   Nazca: Airport of the Gods? The Peruvian coastal region is home to a series of mysterious lines, brought to fame by the Swiss author Erich von Däniken. Dissatisfied with the explanations offered in 1968 as to the purpose of these lines, he proposed they might be a prehistoric airport, for visiting extra-terrestrial beings. Thirty years on, what has changed? by Philip Coppens …

Feature Articles –   Jurassic Library According to geological evidence, the Age of Dinosaurs and the Age of Man are separated by roughly 60 million years. That has not deterred the dream-spinners of Hollywood from supposing that dinosaurs survived into the present (The Lost World), or that they can be genetically recreated (Jurassic Park). other movies in this genre have played with the idea that, somehow, …

Feature Articles –   The Gold of Gran Paititi With the Spanish Conquest of the Inca Empire, many of its cities were destroyed or abandoned. Some of these would survive in name only; some, such as Macchu Picchu, were later rediscovered. None is more lost, and sought after, than Gran Paititi – for there it is, apparently, where the lost gold treasure of the Incas is. …

In 2001, the oldest town in South America was officially announced. Dating to 2600 BC, it pushed back the date for the “first town” with one millennium. What is even more intriguing, is that the town of Caral has pyramids, contemporary with the Egyptian Pyramid Era. by Philip Coppens Sometime before 3200 BC, if not 3500 BC, something happened in the Norte Chico in Peru, …