Sacred city of Machu Picchu under threat

By SOPHIE ARIE

Earlier this year, it looked as if time were running out for Machu Picchu, the sacred Inca city perched at 2550m in the Peruvian Andes.

A group of Japanese scientists warned that the world heritage site, the most renowned archaeological treasure in South America, was shifting over several fault lines and could collapse into the valley below at any moment.

New Scientist reported that researchers had found that the back slope of the city, which sits on a granite saddle between two mountain peaks, was slipping downhill at up to 1cm a month. Fears grew that one of the finest examples of Inca civilisation could be lost for ever.

The cash-strapped Peruvian government, which depends on Machu Picchu as its top tourist attraction, said the report was incomplete and that if the Inca city had survived the elements until now, it would continue to do so.

And they are not the only ones to play down the scare. Experts in the region also suggest that the world should have more faith in Inca wisdom. "Machu Picchu is not likely to fall in the near future and it may well outlast the human race," said geologist and archaeologist Greg Zeigler.

There is no doubt that the Peruvian Andes are prone to land and rockslides, especially in the rainy season. But the Incas built the city on a slab of granite in an area that has not moved despite several earthquakes in the past century.

But the fear remains. Large cracks are visible in the stonework of several key buildings and research is continuing into the rockslide threat.

Some Machu Picchu guides fear they may soon be out of a job. But others are so sceptical they suspect the Japanese scientists of scheming with ex-president Alberto Fujimori to damage Peruvian interests. Fujimori fled to Tokyo last year after a corruption scandal.

According to Nick Asheshov, author of the United Nations' state of the environment report on Peru: "The real threat to Machu Picchu is nothing to do with fault lines. It's the tourists and all the people who clamour to supply the tourists with everything they want."

More than 300,000 people visit Machu Picchu each year, wandering through the sacred stone temples. A cafeteria and toilets on site cater for their needs.

Last month, the Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge hotel was reopened by Orient-Express Hotels. Hardy pilgrims still walk the Inca Trail to reach Machu Picchu but most take the train from nearby Cuzco. Buses shuttle them up the hillside from the tourist town of Aguas Calientes below.

Peru's National Institute for Culture has come under much criticism for failing to protect the site. One of its most glaring mistakes was to allow a film crew to sneak a 476kg crane into the citadel, only to drop it on a sacred sundial.

To try to improve their reputation, the Peruvian authorities last month abandoned a plan to construct a cable car designed to give four times as many visitors quick access to the ruins. Environmentalists and archaeologists had campaigned against the project as a looming catastrophe for flora and fauna.

Unesco warned that it would "very seriously affect the World Heritage values, authenticity and integrity of the Ciudadela [citadel] and its surrounding landscape."

But tourists are still flocking to Peru, and the search for acceptable ways to benefit from the boom while preserving Machu Picchu will continue.

Entrance fees to the Inca Trail have shot up from $NZ40 to $NZ136, and the numbers of visitors will be limited to 2600 a day. The head of the cultural institute in Cuzco, Xavier Lambarri, says plans are afoot to try to divert the tourist flow to other spectacular but less well-known Inca ruins nearby.

- INDEPENDENT