Cumbe Mayo
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Cumbe Mayo Aqueduct |
Cumbe Mayo is located about 12 miles (19 km) southwest of the
Peruvian city of
Cajamarca, at an elevation of approximately 11,000 feet (3,300 meters). The location is best known for the ruins of a Pre-Columbian aqueduct stretching approximately five miles in length. The aqueduct collected water from the Atlantic watershed and redirected it on its way to the Pacific Ocean. Its function appears to be largely aesthetic and religious, intended to make visitors experience the natural rock formations that surround it more intensely, and to meditate on the movement of water through the Andes, rather than to provide actual irrigation. It is thought to have been constructed around 1500 B.C., which would make it coeval with sites such as Kuntur Wasi and Chavin de Huantar, major Formative Period sites in
South America. The name Cumbe Mayo may be derived from a
Quechua phrase,
kunpi mayu, meaning "well-made water channel," or
hunpi mayo, meaning "thin river." There are a number of
petroglyphs on the aqueduct and surrounding caverns.
This remote mountainous region is also the location of a "stone forest" composed of natural volcanic rocks which have been shaped by erosion. These formations of volcanic rock are also known as
Los Frailones, or the Stone Monks.
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Kuntur Wasi
