Temperatures vary by 20 degrees from the top of the destination to the depths of each pit. Here visitors find three gigantic pits that extend more than 100 feet deep and lie surrounded by expertly carved terraces made of earth. This site exhibits the advanced landscaping skills of the ancient Incans. When the Spanish invaded, the exterior temple walls bore sheets of gold. The sun temple Koricancha also still stands. Though Spaniards laid waste to most of the buildings, the walls remain standing. Once considered the center of the world, four roads sprawled out from the holy city and divided the Incan Empire into four quarters.
Stone terraces covered with pink granite slabs overlook the town and may have served as a military outlook. In addition to protecting the perimeter of the community, the walls protected groups of homes and surrounded town courtyards. The historic community bears the original walls that line an intricately designed street grid. Sometime during 1536, the Incans defeated the Spaniards at this location.
A series of carved rocks were likely used for tracking astronomical constellations. Religious buildings appear similar to the temples found at Machu Picchu. The features of the area include a number of picturesque concentrically curved terraces used for agricultural purposes. These ruins lie less than one hour northeast of Cusco and stand above the Urubamba River. The formation likely served as a holy shrine for the Incans. The major attraction here remains the Yurak Rumi, a carved granite boulder approximately the size of a bus. The front of the impressive palace measures over 200 feet in width. Hiram Bingham arrived in Peru in 1911 in search of this ancient settlement. The massive precision cut stones do not exist in other ancient structures. Constructed in an unusual zigzag pattern, the walls contain stones amassing around 300 tons each. The massive complex stands above the city of Cusco and archeologists ponder whether the location served as a royal home, fortress or a combination of both. The hundreds of terraces not only maintained the soil used for agriculture, but additionally provided a unique irrigation system. Buildings, ramps, terraces and walls blend magically into the landscape that once served as home to around 1,000 residents. The perfectly carved stones of each community structure fit so neatly together that a knife blade will not pass through. Lying in the saddle between two peaks approximately 2,000 feet above ground, the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu remain the most famous location in the country. From the array of stones that fit together like jigsaw puzzles to the elaborate water and plumbing systems, these locations continue attracting visitors from thousands of miles around. All display the marvelous skills of the early civilization. Nearby are the remains of a military bunker, which was in use as recently as the mid 1990s.While Machu Picchu remains the most visited set of ancient ruins in Peru, many other also exist. One photograph, showing an area excavated during the 2015 field school, reveals a dense area of walls and structures that range in age from the late Iron Age to the Late Middle Ages – a timeline spanning over 2,000 years. The photo exhibit “UMaine Field School in Zadar, Croatia: The Archaeological Study of Ancient Cities” will run through June 30 in the Hudson Museum’s Minsky Culture Lab at UMaine’s Collins Center for the Arts. The photographs tell the story of long-term urbanization and landscape change with a special focus on Zaro’s most recent research and field school in Croatia.
This body of research is the subject of a new photography exhibit at UMaineÂ’s Hudson Museum. The field school is an internationally collaborative program of field research and education between the University of Maine and the University of Zadar. Zaro has studied ancient cities around the world Â- from Peru, to Belize, to southeastern Europe Â- and since 2015 has led an archaeological field school for undergraduate students at Nadin-Gradina, an archeological site outside of the city of Zadar.