LIMA, Peru, Sept. 11 — Peru sent restoration experts to the world-famous Inca citadel Machu Picchu on Monday after one of its most precious jewels — a centuries-old sun clock — was damaged during filming of an advertisement for a brand of beer.
A 2.8-INCH SECTION of the Intihuatana, a large granite block where the Incas were believed to have worshipped the sun and studied the seasons, was broken on Friday when part of the crane bearing the camera fell.
“The physical damage is not too bad, and it can be repaired in the next 10 days at the most,” said Luis Repetto Malaga, director of the National Institute of Culture.
“It was an accident ... But it has given me moral anguish. This should not have happened.”
The spectacular ruins of Machu Picchu, its gray stone slabs and temples perched amid the clouds at an altitude of 7,782 feet, has become a marketing mecca — despite its status as one of the UNESCO’s World Heritage sites.
Along with thousands of tourists, many of whom trek for days through jungle-covered mountains to the 15th-century citadel, filmmakers have also been cashing in on its cachet.
Want to learn more? http://www.msnbc.com/news/458579.asp
----------------------------
Alien - Administrator / Owner
["Everything was true. God was an alien. Oz really is over the
rainbow. ...and Midian is where the monsters live." -Nightbreed]
A 2.8-INCH SECTION of the Intihuatana, a large granite block where the Incas were believed to have worshipped the sun and studied the seasons, was broken on Friday when part of the crane bearing the camera fell.
“The physical damage is not too bad, and it can be repaired in the next 10 days at the most,” said Luis Repetto Malaga, director of the National Institute of Culture.
“It was an accident ... But it has given me moral anguish. This should not have happened.”
The spectacular ruins of Machu Picchu, its gray stone slabs and temples perched amid the clouds at an altitude of 7,782 feet, has become a marketing mecca — despite its status as one of the UNESCO’s World Heritage sites.
Along with thousands of tourists, many of whom trek for days through jungle-covered mountains to the 15th-century citadel, filmmakers have also been cashing in on its cachet.
Want to learn more? http://www.msnbc.com/news/458579.asp
----------------------------
Alien - Administrator / Owner
["Everything was true. God was an alien. Oz really is over the
rainbow. ...and Midian is where the monsters live." -Nightbreed]
