The US National Geographic Society (NGS) has shown for the first time photos and site plans of the Inca city of Corihuayrachina in the forests of southeastern Peru.
Corihuayrachina was discovered in June 2001 by an NGS expedition led by archaeologist Mr Peter Frost from Britain and Mr Scott Gorsuch from the United States. The city is being billed as the greatest archaeological discovery in Peru in 38 years.
Hidden in thick forest atop Mount Victoria, at 3,300 metres, the Corihuayrachina ruins so far consist of 12 sites with more than 100 structures, including circular homes, storehouses, ceremonial platforms, cemeteries, funeral towers, roadways, waterworks, farming terraces, a dam and a truncated pyramid.
The city, which the Incas may have taken over from other tribes, was built around an ancient silver mine that was exploited by locals until the 1970s. Its ruins are now used as grazing land by two families, the society said yesterday.
The expedition also found human bones, stone and ceramic tools different from those used by the Incas. Archaeologists think the Incas could have shared the city with another tribe they later conquered.
Mr Frost showed in photographs that the ruins and the ancient silver mine that gave it birth were looted more than 60 years ago, presumably by local miners.
He said he was organising a second expedition to the area for June.
AFP