Czech researchers set to return to Machu Picchu

Czech researchers have begun preparing a return expedition to the ancient site of Machu Picchu, where they have monitored geological conditions over several years now. In 2002, a Japanese team warned that the famous Incan ruins, situated at 2,400 metres, could be destroyed as the result of landslide shifts. But Czech specialists (among different scientists who travelled to the area) conducted their own tests and came away with different results. A little earlier Jan Velinger spoke to one of the members of the Czech team, Charles University’s Vít Vilímek, who will be heading back Machu Picchu this summer.

Vít Vilímek

“I can confirm that the Japanese team published findings about a direct threat to the archaeological site of Machu Picchu but our own findings have not been as catastrophic. From the start we checked the field data and type of devices used by the Japanese team and the first thing we found was that they had installed devices only into the surface layer and only into the soil. But the buildings are mostly fixed on hard rock. We decided to make readings across fissures or open trenches in the hard rock – not in the soil. What we measured was about one millimetre per year. The Japanese measured up to one centimetre per month during the rainy season, so this is a big difference.”

You’re speaking there of shifts to the structures…

“Yes, that’s right”

The team is going to head back this summer, correct?

“That’s right, it’s mostly myself and Jan Klimeš from the Academy of Sciences’ Department of Engineering Geology and sometimes we also take some of our students from the faculty.”

What is the area around Machu Picchu like in general and what are ‘realistic’ threats in the area?

“You have really very sleep slopes and do you have periods of heavy precipitation: the rainy season which takes place during our winter in the northern hemisphere. During these periods it’s true that quite a lot of soil and sediment falls under landslide trends. But these mostly take place in the tributary valleys of the Urubamba River. So, these are the most complicated areas. As far as the archaeological site itself is concerned in terms of long-term evolution, it’s true that it really was built in a ‘problematic’ area, the site of an ancient landslide. So, some signs of landslides are there. But we don’t think there is any danger for the site in the coming years. Even so, we continue to record new measurements to get a better picture in the long term.”