From her small home near two golf courses and three slums, Gianina Rojas gazes up at a crumbling adobe pyramid, remnants of the vast Inca empire that flourished more than six centuries ago.
Like many people in modern-day Peru, Rojas was born and raised among Incan sites that were built before the Spanish colonized South America.
Now 26, she recalls treasure hunting as a child — hiding away pieces of ceramic pots, textile scraps and even human bones.
Photo: AP
“Lima is full of places like this,” she said.
The pyramid is just one of thousands of historic sites, or “huacas,” that are being crowded out or destroyed as roads, schools, residential neighborhoods and stadiums are built to meet growing demands.
High-rise apartment buildings tower around one site. Highway traffic barrels through a pair of tunnels newly burrowed under an adobe palace at a 900-year-old cemetery.
One of the few well-preserved pyramids sits across from the mansion of Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, highlighting the creeping pace of urbanization in Peru’s bustling capital.
An estimated 46,000 pre-colonial sites dot Peru’s landscape. About 400 of them are in Lima, which is home to the biggest number of pre-colonial archeological zones of any city in South America.
Yet Peru spends only enough to protect just 1 percent of those sites, according to official data, leaving hundreds of ruins abandoned or relegated to becoming public trash dumps.
“Since the founding of Lima, there has been no relationship between the people and the huacas, beyond seeing them as mounds of earth or places to search for treasures,’’ Lima-based archeologist Hector Walde said.
He spoke while excavating carefully at a 3,500-year-old temple that has walls painted with ancient reliefs depicting mythological animals.
Lima’s first urban explosion in the 20th century was accompanied by large-scale destruction of pre-colonial sites.
The walls of one temple were pulverized to make bricks for new homes beginning in the 1980s, while around that time guerrillas used dynamite to attack an electric tower standing on a pyramid.
Today, a small group of archeologists and officials are stepping up efforts to reverse course and preserve sites being squeezed by urban sprawl.
“The idea is for Peruvians to feel that heritage is something that is enjoyed,” Peruvian Deputy Minister of Heritage Jorge Arrunategui said.
A public awareness campaign he has helped lead since July grants free admission to related museums and dozens of archeological sites across the country, with the hope of reconnecting Peruvians with their heritage.
Officials say a new antiquities law will preserve the nation’s cultural legacy by giving historical sites stronger legal protections, but activists fear it will diminish protections for thousands of sites because the law affects only those designated as archeologically significant by the minister of heritage.
Everyday Peruvians sometimes take their ancient culture for granted, having lived their entire lives alongside the huacas — an indigenous Quechua word meaning “oracle” or “sacred place.”
“Most people do not know how dangerous it is to care for a huaca,” Rojas said. “You have to face land traffickers, thieves and bad people. The worst part is that the state never recognizes or thanks you.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of