- British explorers who have discovered ruins in the depths
of the Bolivian jungle hope they may turn out to be the fabled lost city
of Paititi, where the Incas are said to have fled more than four centuries
ago to escape Spanish conquistadors.
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- Led by Colonel John Blashford-Snell, a 70-strong team
from the Scientific Exploration Society has battled its way along steep,
slippery trails and across 15,000 ft peaks in some of South America's most
inhospitable terrain.
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- The explorers have faced torrential rain, temperatures
of about 95F and razor-sharp bamboo that has cut deep gashes in their skin.
Swarms of fierce bees were attracted by the salt in their sweat and one
expedition member, Craig Halford, was stung more than 50 times. Snakes
are a constant danger.
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- On Wednesday, after three weeks in the mountain jungle,
Bruce Mann, an Aberdeen archeologist, found what he thought could be the
outer defences of the city that has eluded explorers for 450 years.
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- "He almost missed them as they were completely covered
in dense vegetation," said a euphoric Blashford-Snell by satellite
telephone. "This is some of the toughest terrain I have ever encountered
and the weather is not helping." Mann found the walls of a building
measuring 50ft by 45ft. The walls are 3ft 8in high and 15in thick. Two
days later his advance party of six people, guided by a Quilapituni Indian,
had been joined by a team of Royal Engineers and found many further buildings.
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- "They have discovered what appears to be a partly
buried monolith," said Blashford-Snell, who was due to arrive at the
site yesterday with Elizabeth Dix, an archeologist, and Bolivian experts.
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- The party was said to have found a fort, a well, giant
stone steps, two artificial mounds 60ft high and a paved pool. Comparisons
are already being made with the discovery of Machu Picchu, the fortified
Inca city found in 1911 in Peru.
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- It was in the 1570s that the Spanish invaders tried to
solve the "Inca problem" for good, capturing and executing the
last native leaders and dispersing the nobility. A legend grew up among
the Spaniards and native Peruvians about a city deep in the jungles to
the east, where the Inca survivors sought to preserve their ancient culture.
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- Many explorers have set out in search of Paititi. Some
experts doubt its existence, dismissing it as legend or claiming it was
a kingdom, not a city.
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- Although Blashford-Snell is cautious about claiming success,
the antiquity of the site has been proved by local Indians who collected
ancient axe heads made of stone and bronze.
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- Archeologists believe the bronze axe heads are probably
from the high Andes and are similar to Inca weaponry dating back to 1470.
They show little wear, suggesting that they were used in ceremonies or
as a form of currency.
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- The explorers face enormous challenges. The ruins are
20 miles from the nearest vehicle track and paths had to be cut through
the forest with rope bridges strung across rivers.
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- One 50-mile drive took the team six hours, with four
wide rivers to be crossed and the open-top truck having to be freed from
mud six times.
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- Mules and packhorses are being used to take supplies
up to the main camp at Huariconca, in a 1,000ft-deep gorge. From there,
equipment is carried 10 miles by porters. Wildlife is abundant. Besides
bees, the explorers could encounter jaguars, pumas, monkeys, wild pigs,
rodents the size of dogs and many insects and tarantula spiders.
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- The venture, which will last about four months, is the
third phase of the Kota Mama Expedition which began as an attempt to prove
that the ancient people of South America used the continent's waterways
for trade.
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- In the first phase, which began in March 1998, traditional
reed boats took explorers 250 miles to Lake Poopo in Bolivia. In the second,
in 1999, the boats sailed 2,770 miles from Puerto Quijarro in the foothills
of the Andes to Buenos Aires in Argentina.
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- When the survey of the ruins is completed, the third
phase will continue using a reed trimaran to travel from Lake Titicaca
in Peru down the entire length of the Amazon, negotiating dangerous rapids
to emerge in the Atlantic.
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- Two further stages are planned. In the fourth, reed boats
will sail 300 miles down the Rio Grande gorge and, in the fifth, the team
hopes to cross the Atlantic from the west to head for the Persian Gulf
through a route around the Cape of Good Hope.
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