Cajamarca is the capital and largest city of the Cajamarca Region as well as an important cultural center in the Northern Andes.
It is located in the Northern Highlands of Peru at approximately 2,750 m (8,900 ft) above sea level in the Valley of The Mashcon River.
Cajamarca has a mild highland climate, and the area has a very fertile soil. The city is well known for its dairy products and mining activity in the surroundings.
Cajamarca has numerous examples of Spanish colonial religious architecture, beautiful landscapes, pre-Hispanic archeological sites and Hot Springs at the nearby town of "Baths of the Inca"(Banos del Inca).
The history of the city is highlighted by the Battle of Cajamarca, which marked the ambush of the Inca by Spanish invader whom was captured and murdered there.
The name "Cajamarca" has a Quechua origin meaning "Town of Thorns" or "Cold Place" depending on the source. For more than 2000 years, the city and its surroundings, have been occupied by several cultures. Traces of pre-Chavin cultures can be seen in nearby archaelogical sites, such as Cumbe Mayo and Kuntur Wasi (Condor House).
The Archaeological Complex of Cumbe Mayo (THIN RIVER) is at an average altitude of 3,500 meters above sea level and 20 km SouthWest from Cajamarca. It is the place where the highest hydraulic technology were applied on the construction of the Canal's lines built by an advanced pre-Inca society around 1500 BCE. They are incredible perfect, turning at perfect right angles over smooth rock to slow down and regulate the movement of water.
The Aqueduct is a canal of approximately 9km in length, carefully carved in volcanic rock to divert the water from the hills to cultivation fields an a large reservoir at the foot of the Apolonia Hill. Heading towards the Aqueduct there are some stairs sculpted in stone, and a carved stone used as a ceremonial altar. Also prominent is The Sanctuary, a huge cliff resembling a Man's Head, where interesting and undecipherable petroglyphs have been found. They used Obsidian Hammers to create such perfect combination of Nature. The caves and shelters of the area evidence other stone engravings.
In an important section of the route there are also impressive and rare geological formations identify as the shapes of monks forming part of a procession. For this reason, this impressive area, that suddenly appear from the landscape, contrasting the flat, grass-covered Plains around Cajamarca, located in CumbeMayo is known as "The Monks" (Los Frailones). It gives the area a beautiful and profound spiritual dimension.
The name "Cumbe Mayo" which translates to "Thin River," is thought to be one of the oldest Man-made structures in South America.
The House of the Condor (Kuntur Wasi) is the name given to the ruins of a religious center where people congregated, with complex architecture and stone sculptures. It is located at the HeadWaters of the Jequetepeque River, in the region of the city of Cajamarca near the small town of San Pablo. Lithosculptures have been found, similar to the Chavin style.
It is thought to have been constructed around 1200 BC, during the initial period. The architecture consists of a hill-top Temple, quadrangular platforms, a sunken courtyard, and series of rooms. In the floor of one room there is an anthropomorphic figure made of clay, about 75 cm (30 in) in height. It is painted with cinnabar red, malachite green, and black, tellow, and pink. Its face has big square eyes and a wide mouth with prominent canine teeth. There are also stepped platforms and funeral structures.
In 1989, scientist from the University of Tokyo excavated 4 tombs at Kuntur Wasi. Valuable items, such as pectorals necklaces (breastplates), gold crowns (the famous 'crown of the 14 faces), ornamental stone beads, earrings, sets of dishes, and iconography of peoples were discovered in the Burial Site. Since the beginning of the excavations of the University of Tokyo's archaeological mission, 8 Tombs have been found.
The Jequetepeque Valley provided a transportation corridor between the Coastal Region and the HighLands.
Saturday, January 30, 2016
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
LA OROYA, THE OLDEST SETTLEMENT IN HIGH LANDS.
La Oroya is a mining town on the the River Mantaro in Central Peru. It is situated on the Altiplano some 176 km East-North-East of the national capital Lima.
In 1533, the Spanish established a small settlement and started mining for precious metals in the area, but isolation and transport difficulties hindered extraction.
Later, the area's strategic position made it a center of guerrilla activity. One decisive battle of military engagement of the Peruvian War of Independence (August 6,1824), fought in the Highlands of the Junin Region, took place nearby, Chacamarca (Junin).
Mining in the area developed gradually, and did not greatly expand until the railway from Lima to La Oroya was completed in 1893. The railway, an extraordinary feat of engineering, was planned by the Polish railway builder Ernest, Malinowski. He was a Polish expatriate, voluntarily exiled in Peru because of the political problems in his country, occupied at that time by Germany, Russia, and Austria.
In 1851, the engineer proposed to extent the newly opened Lima to Callao railroad as far as the Valley of Jauja, situated in the fertile Mantaro Valley, at an altitude of 3,400 m (11,200 ft).
Jauja, for a short time was once the capital of Spanish Per, prior to the founding of Lima as the new capital. The name is used figuratively to mean a "never never land" or a "land of milk and honey." One oral tradition mentions that the Inca ordered the mutilation of men's and women's hand in Jauja, at the Pampa de Maquinhauyo, 8 km (5 mi) South of present day Jauja, instead of killing all of them because through them the land became polluted.
In 1868, Henry Meiggs, a promoter/entrepreneur in the railroad business. He was born in Catskill, New York. He began his career in the lumber field but was ruined by the Panic of 1837. He restarted it in Brookling, but again met with failure. Finding success in sending lumber to the Pacific Coast, he relocated to San Francisco during the peak of the California Gold Rush on the cargo ship "Albany" laden with lumber, which he sold there for 20 times its cost. Like many others that arrived in San francisco in 1849, he got into real state speculation. He promoted the possibility of piers along the North shore area, on the grounds that it was closer to the Golden Gate than the usual harbor, ;ocated just South of Broadway Street on the shore of what is today downtown San Francisco. He became extended financially in trying to do this. In order to make ends meet, he illicitly obtained a Book full of Warrants on the Street Fund (which had little money in it), which the city's controller and major had fallen in the habit of signing the Book in advance. Meiggs forged the remaining information and raised money. Before his fraud was discovered, he left San Francisco on October 6, 1854, heading for South America. According to him, he landed with only $8,000 (half a million, by some accounts) and became a successful railroad entrepreneur. While his Peruvian contracts were wildly profitable, by 1876, his financial situation had begun to disintegrate. He found it more difficult to obtain credit. His 1877 death only worsened the economic chaos in Peru. He was buried at a local cemetery Presbitero Maestro on the road that link Lima to Callao.
The Callao, Lima & Oroya Railway opened to Chilca by 1878 and reached La Oroya by 1893 and huancayo (346 km/215mi) in 1908. It is the 2nd highest Railway in the World (following opening of the Qing-zang Railway in Tibet), with the Galera summit Tunnel under Mount Meiggs at 4,783 (15,692 ft) and Galera station at 4,777m (15,673 ft) above sea level.
In 1923 a branch was opened from Ticlio (making it the World's highest junction) to Morococha via La Cima (4,818m/15,807 ft above sea level), from where in April 1955 a spur line opened to Volcan Mine, reaching an (at the time )World record altitude of 4,830 m (15,850 ft). Both branch and spur have since closed to passenger traffic. Only minerals (mainly from La Oroya), fuels, cement and food products run through the spectacular landscapes of the Peruvian Andes.
La Oroya polymetallic smelter and a copper mine at Cobriza were sold to Doe Run Corporation in 1997, the largest integrated lead producer in North America and the largest primary lead producer in the Western World. Their revenues doubled with the purchase. When the purchase was complete the company agreed to improve the facility to make it less harmful for the environment. Instead, it allowed toxic elements used in the smelting process to contaminate La Oroya's air, water and soil. As a result of years of pollution, the Hills immediately around the smelter became completely denuded, the River became more toxic, and the Health of the local inhabitants suffered. Residents have been found to have alarmingly high concentrations of lead in their blood, and in the drinking water, and many have bronchial troubles.
A 1999 study conducted 2 years after Doe Run's acquisition showed high levels of air pollution, with 85 times more arsenic, 41 times more cadmiun, and 13 times more lead than amounts generally considered safe.
On February 5, 2008 Doe Run reported that the state Health Officials confirmed that the quality of the Yauli or Mantaro Rivers was no longer impacted by the smelter's liquid discharges. However, the company also stated that the River was still polluted by mining and other operations upstream.
Despite advancements in other areas, sulfur dioxide emissions reached alarmingly records in August 2008. It is a very toxic gas with a pungent, irritating, and rotten smell.
On other Planets in the Universe, the toxic gas can be found in various concentrations, the most significant being the atmosphere of the Planet Venus, where it is the 3rd most significant component of the atmospheric gases. There, it condenses to form clouds, and is a key component of chemical reactions in the Planet's atmosphere and contributes to global warming. It has been inplicated as a key agent in the warming of early Mars.
The question is now: What are the real causes of our Global Warming? My answer is: Man's greediness toward the Earth's natural reaches."
In 1533, the Spanish established a small settlement and started mining for precious metals in the area, but isolation and transport difficulties hindered extraction.
Later, the area's strategic position made it a center of guerrilla activity. One decisive battle of military engagement of the Peruvian War of Independence (August 6,1824), fought in the Highlands of the Junin Region, took place nearby, Chacamarca (Junin).
Mining in the area developed gradually, and did not greatly expand until the railway from Lima to La Oroya was completed in 1893. The railway, an extraordinary feat of engineering, was planned by the Polish railway builder Ernest, Malinowski. He was a Polish expatriate, voluntarily exiled in Peru because of the political problems in his country, occupied at that time by Germany, Russia, and Austria.
In 1851, the engineer proposed to extent the newly opened Lima to Callao railroad as far as the Valley of Jauja, situated in the fertile Mantaro Valley, at an altitude of 3,400 m (11,200 ft).
Jauja, for a short time was once the capital of Spanish Per, prior to the founding of Lima as the new capital. The name is used figuratively to mean a "never never land" or a "land of milk and honey." One oral tradition mentions that the Inca ordered the mutilation of men's and women's hand in Jauja, at the Pampa de Maquinhauyo, 8 km (5 mi) South of present day Jauja, instead of killing all of them because through them the land became polluted.
In 1868, Henry Meiggs, a promoter/entrepreneur in the railroad business. He was born in Catskill, New York. He began his career in the lumber field but was ruined by the Panic of 1837. He restarted it in Brookling, but again met with failure. Finding success in sending lumber to the Pacific Coast, he relocated to San Francisco during the peak of the California Gold Rush on the cargo ship "Albany" laden with lumber, which he sold there for 20 times its cost. Like many others that arrived in San francisco in 1849, he got into real state speculation. He promoted the possibility of piers along the North shore area, on the grounds that it was closer to the Golden Gate than the usual harbor, ;ocated just South of Broadway Street on the shore of what is today downtown San Francisco. He became extended financially in trying to do this. In order to make ends meet, he illicitly obtained a Book full of Warrants on the Street Fund (which had little money in it), which the city's controller and major had fallen in the habit of signing the Book in advance. Meiggs forged the remaining information and raised money. Before his fraud was discovered, he left San Francisco on October 6, 1854, heading for South America. According to him, he landed with only $8,000 (half a million, by some accounts) and became a successful railroad entrepreneur. While his Peruvian contracts were wildly profitable, by 1876, his financial situation had begun to disintegrate. He found it more difficult to obtain credit. His 1877 death only worsened the economic chaos in Peru. He was buried at a local cemetery Presbitero Maestro on the road that link Lima to Callao.
The Callao, Lima & Oroya Railway opened to Chilca by 1878 and reached La Oroya by 1893 and huancayo (346 km/215mi) in 1908. It is the 2nd highest Railway in the World (following opening of the Qing-zang Railway in Tibet), with the Galera summit Tunnel under Mount Meiggs at 4,783 (15,692 ft) and Galera station at 4,777m (15,673 ft) above sea level.
In 1923 a branch was opened from Ticlio (making it the World's highest junction) to Morococha via La Cima (4,818m/15,807 ft above sea level), from where in April 1955 a spur line opened to Volcan Mine, reaching an (at the time )World record altitude of 4,830 m (15,850 ft). Both branch and spur have since closed to passenger traffic. Only minerals (mainly from La Oroya), fuels, cement and food products run through the spectacular landscapes of the Peruvian Andes.
La Oroya polymetallic smelter and a copper mine at Cobriza were sold to Doe Run Corporation in 1997, the largest integrated lead producer in North America and the largest primary lead producer in the Western World. Their revenues doubled with the purchase. When the purchase was complete the company agreed to improve the facility to make it less harmful for the environment. Instead, it allowed toxic elements used in the smelting process to contaminate La Oroya's air, water and soil. As a result of years of pollution, the Hills immediately around the smelter became completely denuded, the River became more toxic, and the Health of the local inhabitants suffered. Residents have been found to have alarmingly high concentrations of lead in their blood, and in the drinking water, and many have bronchial troubles.
A 1999 study conducted 2 years after Doe Run's acquisition showed high levels of air pollution, with 85 times more arsenic, 41 times more cadmiun, and 13 times more lead than amounts generally considered safe.
On February 5, 2008 Doe Run reported that the state Health Officials confirmed that the quality of the Yauli or Mantaro Rivers was no longer impacted by the smelter's liquid discharges. However, the company also stated that the River was still polluted by mining and other operations upstream.
Despite advancements in other areas, sulfur dioxide emissions reached alarmingly records in August 2008. It is a very toxic gas with a pungent, irritating, and rotten smell.
On other Planets in the Universe, the toxic gas can be found in various concentrations, the most significant being the atmosphere of the Planet Venus, where it is the 3rd most significant component of the atmospheric gases. There, it condenses to form clouds, and is a key component of chemical reactions in the Planet's atmosphere and contributes to global warming. It has been inplicated as a key agent in the warming of early Mars.
The question is now: What are the real causes of our Global Warming? My answer is: Man's greediness toward the Earth's natural reaches."
Sunday, January 17, 2016
THE CITY OF TARMA, THE PEARL OF THE ANDES.
The city, named by Antonio Raymondi as "The Pearl Of the Andes," is situated in the Center of Peru, at an elevation of 3080 meters above sea level in Tarma Province; 266 kms East of the city of Lima, in the Mountain Ranges of the Andes, in the Junin Region of Peru within a fertile Valley.
The region is one of Peru's most beautiful Andean Regions, with green rather than snow-caped mountains stretching down from high, craggy limestone outcrops into steep canyons forged by Amazon tributaries powering their way down to the Ocean. It is the 2nd biggest city in Junin.
By far it is the nicest Mountain Town in Peru that sits on the edge of the Andes almost with spitting distance of the Amazon Forest and where many important civilizations lived in the past, from pre-Inca to the Inca Culture.
The pre-Inca large ethnic groups were: the Chinchaycocha, the Xauxa and the Wanka. The Chincahycocha settled to the Northwest of the region, mainly what is today La Oroya and the Northern part of the Valley. The Xauxa settled to the Southern part, south of the Tarma River. The Wancas and another small group called Palcamayo settled to the East section. When the Inca time arrived, they built up a new Province in Tarma. They moved the locals to other sections of the Empire and built a strategic religious and political Province, which allowed them to exercise better control of the Region. The capital of the Inca Province was Tarma Tambo. The Spaniards moved the capital or Head of the Province from Tarma Tambo, located at the slope of a Mountain, to the bottom of the Valley, called Pampas (1538). Originally the zone was a town of natural people called "Pueblo de Indios."
Tarma is one of the region's most welcoming cities with a balmy climate by altiplano standards, surrounded on all sides by Mountains and steep, deep Valleys, and poised on the eyebrow of the jungle with a road linking the Central Andes to the Amazon Basin. It has a lot to offer, ruins, caves, waterfalls, and just a short distance to the Jungle.
Tarma makes a good living from its traditional textile and leather industries, and from growing flowers for export as well as for their own use.
The Town's greatest claim to fame is its connection with Juan Santos Atahualpa's rebellion in the 1740s and 1750s: taking refuge in the surroundings Mountains he defied Spanish troops for more than a decade, though Peace returned to the Region in 1756 when he and his allies mysteriously disappeared.
Today Tarma is a quiet place, disturbed only by the flow of trucks climbing up towards the jungle foothills, and the Town's famous Easter Sunday procession from the Main Plaza, when the streets are covered by carpets of dazzling flowers.
The region is one of Peru's most beautiful Andean Regions, with green rather than snow-caped mountains stretching down from high, craggy limestone outcrops into steep canyons forged by Amazon tributaries powering their way down to the Ocean. It is the 2nd biggest city in Junin.
By far it is the nicest Mountain Town in Peru that sits on the edge of the Andes almost with spitting distance of the Amazon Forest and where many important civilizations lived in the past, from pre-Inca to the Inca Culture.
The pre-Inca large ethnic groups were: the Chinchaycocha, the Xauxa and the Wanka. The Chincahycocha settled to the Northwest of the region, mainly what is today La Oroya and the Northern part of the Valley. The Xauxa settled to the Southern part, south of the Tarma River. The Wancas and another small group called Palcamayo settled to the East section. When the Inca time arrived, they built up a new Province in Tarma. They moved the locals to other sections of the Empire and built a strategic religious and political Province, which allowed them to exercise better control of the Region. The capital of the Inca Province was Tarma Tambo. The Spaniards moved the capital or Head of the Province from Tarma Tambo, located at the slope of a Mountain, to the bottom of the Valley, called Pampas (1538). Originally the zone was a town of natural people called "Pueblo de Indios."
Tarma is one of the region's most welcoming cities with a balmy climate by altiplano standards, surrounded on all sides by Mountains and steep, deep Valleys, and poised on the eyebrow of the jungle with a road linking the Central Andes to the Amazon Basin. It has a lot to offer, ruins, caves, waterfalls, and just a short distance to the Jungle.
Tarma makes a good living from its traditional textile and leather industries, and from growing flowers for export as well as for their own use.
The Town's greatest claim to fame is its connection with Juan Santos Atahualpa's rebellion in the 1740s and 1750s: taking refuge in the surroundings Mountains he defied Spanish troops for more than a decade, though Peace returned to the Region in 1756 when he and his allies mysteriously disappeared.
Today Tarma is a quiet place, disturbed only by the flow of trucks climbing up towards the jungle foothills, and the Town's famous Easter Sunday procession from the Main Plaza, when the streets are covered by carpets of dazzling flowers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)