TEXTO:
New Trail to Machu Picchu
A team of Peruvian archaeologists has found a new
trail leading to the Machu Picchu complex in Cusco,
Peru — even if much of the road is still heavily covered
by thick vegetation. The discovery was announced by
[5] the director of the Archaeological Park of Machu Picchu,
Fernando Astete. The new road, almost a mile long, leads
to the Wayraqtambo area located in the rear section of
the citadel.
A team of workers are still on site cleaning the path,
[10] whose width varies between 3.9 and 4.5 feet, to clean
the road of brushes and trees. At the moment, only
intermittent retaining walls, up to 10 feet high, holding
back Machu Picchu mountain can be seen. “We don’t
know yet exactly how long or how tall the tunnel is,”
[15] Astete told Fox News Latino, explaining that much
excavation needs to be done. The tunnel was built after
20 feet of earth and rock collapsed over the road, he
added. “[The Incas] had to break up all those rocks to
construct the tunnel.”
[20] The road includes a tunnel—around 15 feet long
and as much as 12 feet high—built with the rocks typical
of Inca architecture. “It is one of the finest examples of
Inca engineering,” Astete has said.
Astete told FNL that the newly-discovered road
[25] probably predates Machu Picchu itself, which was built
at the height of the Inca Empire, around 1450, and was
unknown to the outside world before being discovered in
1911 by the American historian Hiram Bingham.
While Machu Picchu’s original purpose is still
[30] unknown, one of the most popular theories about the
site is that it was the royal retreat of the 15th-century
Inca Emperor Pachacuti. According to a National
Geographic report published in 2011, this idea maintains
that Machu Picchu was a place for Pachacuti and his
[35] royal court to relax, hunt, and entertain guests.
Machu Picchu, which covers 32,592 hectares of
mountain slopes, peaks and valleys, was declared one
of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites in 1983.
New Trail to Machu Picchu. Disponível em: http:// latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2014/06/06/new-trail-to-machupicchu-found-in-peru-nearly-mile-long-and-wit-tunnel/. Acesso em: 13 jun. 2014. Adaptado.
The director of the Archaeological Park of Machu Picchu, Fernando Astete,
