Peru's Most Unusual Places

Peru is one the oldest countries in the world. And if you are going to visit it sometime as a tourist or just want to know something interesting about this country, then you should definitely visit all the following places.

No tourist can pass by Moray - an archeological site, located at Cusco and which, at first glance, resembles a ground on which the UFO once landed.

But actually, this place was used for growing crops in former times. Each terrace retained a certain temperature and soil moisture. It let rich landowners get a great quantity of different sorts of corn.

It's quite interesting that local tribes built such terraces even before the Incas. And even nowadays they are still in use.

The energy with which local peasants walk up and down these "floating" stairs every day is quite impressive.

And this is Salinas - salt mines which also have been in use since the time of the Incas.

That's how it works. The brook flows from the rock. Its salt water is distributed among the graded containers. When it's evaporated, a salt film is left on them. The local residents gather this film into the bags and sell it. The salt is processed and then goes to the supermarkets. The unprocessed brown salt is considered to be healthy and thus is gratefully used by the locals.

An observation platform.

And this is a breathtakingly beautiful panorama from the settlement of Pisak.

Some local plants.

Famous Machu Picchu, situated on a mountain ridge, is at a small distance from Cusco. No words can describe this beauty.

Another attraction of Peru is Lake Titicaca with its floating Uros Islands. 

The whole idea is quite clear. Pieces of peat are lifted from the bottom of the lake. Then they are dried, cut into cubes and fastened to each other with ropes. As a result, kind of a pontoon floor, able to resist any waves, is obtained. Then it is covered with dry reed and that's it - one can build houses on it.

Local residents welcome tourists.

The houses where their ancestors lived in.
 
And their boats.


Now let's visit Nazka and see those mysterious symbols marked on the surface of the desert.

Maria Reiche, a German archeologist, dedicated the greater part of her life to the analysis of these images.

She compared them with constellations and made a conclusion that all of them together formed a huge graphical calendar.

But some people still believe the images are made by aliens.

Others say it's the paintings of the ancestors. In fact, there are quite a lot of different theories, one is more mysterious than another. 

This is a condor.

A hummingbird.

A whale.

Huacachina Oasis is another amazingly beautiful place of Peru.

Those who thought Peru had only tropical forests and the Andes will be surprised having seen these dunes.

One can hardly see a bunch of snowboarders in the picture.

The speed is high and it's rather difficult to keep the balance.

A beautiful sunset in the desert.
via denkap