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.”
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS