Terraced slopes used for drainage and farming



Machu Picchu, located in the Cuzco area of Peru, is arguably the world’s most impressive pre-Columbian site. The citadel, situated 2,430m (7,970ft) above sea level, is widely thought to have been built as an exclusive estate for Inca emperors.

Construction started in around 1450 and was inhabited until 1572 as a result of the Spanish Conquest. Fortunately, the Spanish never found and ruined the citadel as they did with many other Inca sites. Instead, Machu Picchu was mysteriously abandoned, possibly because its inhabitants died from smallpox brought in by the conquistadors.

The site was first brought to international attention in 1911 when historian Hiram Bingham announced the discovery of the citadel to foreigners. It remains disputed whether he was the first westerner to find the site, for evidence of Machu Picchu has appeared on maps since 1874 when it was discovered by German businessman, Augusto Berns.

The quality of Inca stonemasonry is evident throughout the site

A small tourist town called Aguas Calientes (literally ‘warm waters’ in Spanish) is situated at the base of the mountain. Tourists then take busses to the top – the entrance to the citadel. The only way to enter the town is via train (4 hours) or on foot (about 3 days) through the Inca Trail. Both are an 80km (50 miles) journey that start in Cuzco, the Inca civilisation’s capital, and end at the entrance to Machu Picchu.

Entry is limited to Machu Picchu. No more than 3,000 people may enter the site on a single day and no more than 500 people can take the 2 hour hike to Huayna Picchu. The temple of the moon is situated there, high above Machu Picchu, and boasts magnificent views of the whole complex.

There is a strict no-fly zone above the area and helicopter flights in the area are completely forbidden. Like the quota on visitors, this is to protect the fragile stone walls of the site.

Oscar Niemeyer

Oscar Niemeyer at age 103

Yesterday marked the death of Brazilian architect, Oscar Niemeyer, who died on 5 December 2012 at the age of 104, 10 days before his 105^th birthday. For that reason, it is fitting to pay tribute on this hugely influential architect on today’s post.

Niemeyer’s portfolio included the UN Headquarters in New York City; the parliamentary buildings in Brazil’s capital, Brasília; several museums around the world in Italy, Brazil, Spain and Venezuela; and artistic libraries across Brazil.

He designed his work in a very modern style, not in any way confined by straight lines or fixed shapes. Indeed, many of his buildings are characterised by round tops, façades and walls. He described his work brilliantly in a much-quoted memoir:

I am not attracted to straight angles or to the straight line, hard and inflexible, created by man. I am attracted to free-flowing, sensual curves. The curves that I find in the mountains of my country, in the sinuousness of its rivers, in the waves of the ocean, and on the body of the beloved woman. Curves make up the entire Universe, the curved Universe of Einstein.

In 1956, Niemeyer agreed to team up with city planner, Juscelino Kubitschek, to design a new capital city for Brazil that was more functional and centrally-located than the then-capital of Rio de Janeiro. Viewed from above, the street plan resembles a bird/airplane. The city also features the National Congress, Brazil’s main administrative building, University of Brasília, Ministry of Justice, Presidential Palace and South America’s largest library. All the mentioned buildings were designed almost single-handedly by Oscar Niemeyer.

Church of Brasilia

Niemeyer remained active until his death, designing his last buildings in 2011 and 2012.

Interior of church

Niteroi Contemporary Museum of Art in Curitiba, Brazilo

Brasilia from the air

Guaíra Falls



Nature's greatest waterfall ever

 Most recently, I posted about the Itaipu Dam, the world’s most powerful dam located on the Brazil-Paraguay border. In my post, I omitted a fact that’s both fascinating and sad, for during the construction of the dam, the Guaíra Falls, the most voluminous falls ever, were in 1982 dynamited and forever destroyed.

The falls consisted of a collection of 18 cataracts in 7 groups. All-in-all, these seven falls flowed at 13.3 billion litres (3.5 billion gallons) per second, 6 times greater than Niagara’s flow rate.

Just before the submergence by the Itaipu reservoir, several tourists went to visit the falls for the last time. Tragically, a footbridge that offered visitors a particularly spectacular vista of the falls collapsed and killed 80 people.

Very little information is available about the Guaira Falls owing to the lack of foreign tourism in Brazil at the time (especially before construction on Itaipu began in 1970), but it is very possible that these falls were also the world’s widest, a category now claimed by Foz do Iguaçu. Interestingly, the latter is located around 30km (18.6 miles) from the Itaipu Dam. This means that that corner of Brazil used to be home to the world’s most voluminous falls, the widest and also the second-widest waterfall ever.

Just for interest’s sake, the second and third most voluminous falls ever were also submerged for the construction of dams. These are the Celilo and Kettle Falls respectively, both in Columbia, USA.

The Brazilian poet, Carlos Drummond de Andrade wrote a moving poem about the falls which made up the entire front page of a local newspaper. An excerpt of the poem – in English - is below:

Here seven visions, seven liquid sculptures
vanished through the computerized calculations
of a country ceasing to be human
in order to become a chilly corporation, nothing more.
A movement becomes a dam.

With difficulty, I found the whole poem below. It is written in Portuguese, which I don’t understand. Google Translate (http://translate.google.com/) the poem for an interesting and basic understanding of it though.

Adeus a Sete Quedas Sete quedas por mim passaram, e todas sete se esvaíram. Cessa o estrondo das cachoeiras, e com ele a memória dos índios, pulverizada, já não desperta o mínimo arrepio. Aos mortos espanhóis, aos mortos bandeirantes, aos apagados fogos de Ciudad Real de Guaira vão juntar-se os sete fantasmas das águas assassinadas por mão do homem, dono do planeta. Aqui outrora retumbaram vozes da natureza imaginosa, fértil em teatrais encenações de sonhos aos homens ofertadas sem contrato. Uma beleza-em-si, fantástico desenho corporizado em cachões e bulcões de aéreo contorno mostrava-se, despia-se, doava-se em livre coito à humana vista extasiada. Toda a arquitetura, toda a engenharia de remotos egípcios e assírios em vão ousaria criar tal monumento. E desfaz-se por ingrata intervenção de tecnocratas. Aqui sete visões, sete esculturas de líquido perfil dissolvem-se entre cálculos computadorizados de um país que vai deixando de ser humano para tornar-se empresa gélida, mais nada. Faz-se do movimento uma represa, da agitação faz-se um silêncio empresarial, de hidrelétrico projeto. Vamos oferecer todo o conforto que luz e força tarifadas geram à custa de outro bem que não tem preço nem resgate, empobrecendo a vida na feroz ilusão de enriquecê-la. Sete boiadas de água, sete touros brancos, de bilhões de touros brancos integrados, afundam-se em lagoa, e no vazio que forma alguma ocupará, que resta senão da natureza a dor sem gesto, a calada censura e a maldição que o tempo irá trazendo? Vinde povos estranhos, vinde irmãos brasileiros de todos os semblantes, vinde ver e guardar não mais a obra de arte natural hoje cartão-postal a cores, melancólico, mas seu espectro ainda rorejante de irisadas pérolas de espuma e raiva, passando, circunvoando, entre pontes pênseis destruídas e o inútil pranto das coisas, sem acordar nenhum remorso, nenhuma culpa ardente e confessada. (“Assumimos a responsabilidade! Estamos construindo o Brasil grande!”) E patati patati patatá... Sete quedas por nós passaram, e não soubemos, ah, não soubemos amá-las, e todas sete foram mortas, e todas sete somem no ar, sete fantasmas, sete crimes dos vivos golpeando a vida que nunca mais renascerá.