标签秘鲁下的文章

马丘比丘，秘鲁 Machu Picchu, Peru (© Dora Dalton/Getty Images)

山顶上的文化奇观 A mountaintop cultural wonder

国际古迹遗址日

高悬于安第斯山脉之上，秘鲁的马丘比丘被认为曾属于古印加皇帝帕查库蒂。今天是联合国教科文组织国际古迹遗址日，推荐这座“印加的失落之城”实在是恰逢其时，它是代表一整个民族记忆的文化符号。国际古迹遗址日由国际古迹遗址理事会首次提出，并于1983年正式设立。它给了我们一个回望过去的机会，让我们得以一睹前人的文化，同时为后人保留这些久远的记忆。

International Day for Monuments and Sites

Located high in the Andes Mountains, Peru's Machu Picchu is believed to have been an estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuti, who ruled in the mid-15th century. This 'Lost City of the Incas' is one of the world's most famous archaeological sites, an engineering marvel, built without mortar, metal tools, or the wheel. As an icon of Inca civilization, it is a perfect fit for UNESCO's International Day for Monuments and Sites, which has been celebrating important cultural heritage sites for 40 years. Landmarks such as the Pueblo Indian dwellings of Mesa Verde, the Taj Mahal, the Great Pyramid of Giza, and the Parthenon give us the opportunity to look back at the cultures that came before us and preserve their memory for future generations.

亚马孙雨林的树冠探险，秘鲁 Suspension bridge in Tambopata National Reserve, Amazon Basin, Peru (© Pere Rubi/Getty Images)

随着亚马孙的树冠摇摆 Sway with the Amazonian canopy

坦博帕塔国家保护区，秘鲁

穿过亚马孙雨林中的这座吊桥，意味着你要依靠这些树木作为支撑。同样，地球生物的生存也依赖于亚马孙雨林的这些树木。亚马孙流域储存的碳是全球化石燃料年排放量的10倍以上，这里还是地球上10%已知物种的家园。亚马孙河是世界上流域最广、流量最大的河流，其河流入海流量占全球的20%。从安第斯山脉到大西洋，亚马孙河流经了八个国家。今天的照片拍摄于秘鲁的坦博帕塔国家保护区，这里是巨型角雕、金刚鹦鹉、美洲虎、水豚、树懒和巨型水獭的家园。

Tambopata National Reserve, Peru

To cross this suspension bridge in the canopy of the Amazon rainforest means depending on the trees of the forest to support you. Similarly, the survival of life on Earth depends on the trees of the Amazon forest. Amazonia stores more carbon than 10 times the annual global emissions from fossil fuel and supports approximately 10% of all known animal and plant species on Earth. The Amazon River discharges more water than any other river on earth, and almost 20% of all water that flows into the ocean from rivers travels through the Amazon River basin. While almost two thirds of the Amazon lie in Brazil, it stretches across seven other countries, from the Andes Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. This section of canopy is in Peru's Tambopata National Reserve, home to giant harpy eagles, macaws, jaguars, capybaras, sloths, and giant otters.

马拉斯盐田，秘鲁 Salt ponds of Maras in Peru's Sacred Valley of the Incas (© Fotofeeling/Westend61 on Offset/Shutterstock)

巧夺天工的印加智慧 Incan ingenuity

Salt ponds of Maras, Peru

Peru's spectacularly beautiful Cuzco region has plenty of Incan wonders waiting to be rediscovered. Take, for example, these ancient salt ponds, stepping their way down the mountainside in Maras, nestled in the Sacred Valley of the Incas. You'll find more than 6,000 of the little salt pans near Maras, many of them owned and mined by local families. Salt is still harvested from the ponds through evaporation, just as it was in the 1400s when the Inca created the pools. Production is—pun sort of intended—seasonal. From May to October output is greater and of higher quality, and you'll see crystallized salt with its subtle pink hue. Maras salt is prized for its flavor and rough texture, and people swear by its healthy properties, too. The salt is sold in markets, and of course visitors are encouraged to take samples back home with them.

It's not far from Maras to Moray, another location where Incan ingenuity is on display. This time it's in the form of grass-covered stone rings believed to have been test beds for crop experimentation. The soil is from a few areas in the region, and studies show that the rings were designed to create microclimates to see what worked best for different plants.

秘鲁马拉斯的盐池

秘鲁美丽的库斯科地区有许多印加奇观等待重新发现。举个例子，这些古老的盐池坐落在神圣的印加山谷中，沿着马拉斯的山坡往下走。你会在马拉斯附近发现6000多个小盐田，其中许多是当地家庭拥有和开采的。盐仍然是通过蒸发从池塘中获取的，就像14世纪印加人创造池塘时一样。生产是双关语，有点季节性的。从5月到10月，产量更大，质量更高，你会看到结晶盐带有淡淡的粉红色。玛拉盐因其风味和粗糙的质地而备受赞誉，人们也对其健康特性深信不疑。食盐在市场上出售，当然也鼓励游客带着食盐回家。

从马拉斯到马里不远，这是印加的另一个创意展示地。这一次，它以草覆盖的石环的形式出现，据信石环是作物试验的试验台。土壤来自该地区的几个地区，研究表明，这些环是为了创造小气候，以观察什么对不同的植物最有效。

被白雪覆盖的彩虹山，秘鲁 Aerial view of snowy peaks of Vinicunca (aka Rainbow Mountain), Peru (© Jude Newkirk/Amazing Aerial Agency)

Rainbow Mountain

Even to the huge bummer that is glacial melting, there are bright sides: The radiant colors of Vinicunca (aka Rainbow Mountain) might have gone unseen had rising temps not melted the peak's glacial caps. Rainbow Mountain's streaky sediment layers, multicolored like a wildflower bloom, were revealed in 2015. Since then, it's become the most visited natural attraction in Peru's lofty Cusco region.

彩虹山

即使对于冰川融化这一巨大的麻烦来说，也有光明的一面：如果上升的气温没有融化山顶的冰盖，维尼库卡（又名彩虹山）的灿烂色彩可能已经看不见了。彩虹山的条纹状沉积物层，五颜六色，像野花盛开，于2015年被发现。从那时起，它成为秘鲁高耸的库斯科地区游客最多的自然景点。

阿玛斯广场上的库斯科大教堂，库斯科，秘鲁 (© sharptoyou/Shutterstock)

以布兰卡山脉为背景的安地斯皇后（莴氏普亚凤梨），秘鲁 Queen of the Andes plants with the Cordillera Blanca massif in the background, Peru (© Cyril Ruoso/Minden Pictures)

Mountains fit for a queen

Like sentinels standing guard, these towering stalks are flowers of the queen of the Andes, the world's largest bromeliad—some specimens can grow up to 50 feet tall. This extraordinary plant has adapted to grow only in the adverse conditions found on the high slopes of the Bolivian and Peruvian Andes. To see several of them in bloom at once is truly special, for the queen of the Andes sends up her flowering stalk just once, after a century or so of painstaking growth. A single plant will bloom for about three months, producing anywhere from 8,000 to 20,000 flowers, then die.

Because mountains present a variety of altitudes, exposures, and gradients, they host a broad spectrum of climatic zones and ecosystems. The plants in our image are thriving in Peru's Cordillera Blanca (White Range), the highest and most glaciated tropical mountain range in the world. Several peaks in the Cordillera Blanca tower more than 20,000 feet in elevation, making it a world-class climbing destination. Each step up or down in altitude seems to introduce a new ecosystem, with plants and animals that have adapted to each differentiated zone.

Protecting this biodiversity found on mountains is the theme for 2020's International Mountain Day, held each year on December 11. The UN, which founded International Mountain Day, invites us to join the conversation about the importance of mountains. On social media, use the hashtag #MountainsMatter to share about the biodiversity in the mountains near you.

群山适合皇后居住

就像哨兵站岗一样，这些高耸的茎是安地斯皇后（世界上最大的凤梨科植物）的花朵——一些标本可以长到50英尺高。这种非凡的植物仅在玻利维亚和秘鲁安第斯山脉的高坡上发现的不利条件下才适合生长。一次看到它们中的数个绽放确实是很特别的，因为经过一个多世纪的艰苦成长，安第斯山脉的女王才一次发出她的开花茎。一棵植物将开花约三个月，产生8,000至20,000朵花，然后死亡。

由于山区呈现出各种海拔，暴露和坡度，因此它们拥有广泛的气候区和生态系统。我们所描绘的植物在秘鲁的科迪勒拉·布兰卡（White Range）繁茂，这是世界上最高和最冰川化的热带山脉。科迪勒拉布兰卡塔的几个山峰海拔超过20,000英尺，使其成为世界一流的攀岩胜地。海拔的每上升或下降似乎都会引入一个新的生态系统，动植物已经适应了每个不同的区域。

保护山区发现的这种生物多样性是每年12月11日举行的2020年国际山区日的主题。创建国际山区日的联合国邀请我们参加有关山区重要性的讨论。在社交媒体上，使用#MountainsMatter主题标签分享您附近山区的生物多样性。

The (Inca) empire strikes back

It's the 1530s. Spanish conquistadors are cementing their hold over the lands of the Incan Empire, including the massive 12th-century stone fortress in today's image: Sacsayhuamán, in the old Inca capital of Cusco. The Spanish hold prisoner a man named Manco Inca, the puppet leader they've installed over the Incans. But one day in the spring of 1536, he escapes.

He returns on May 6, accompanied by legions of Inca warriors. The Inca retake much of Cusco, including Sacsayhuamán, which they make their main base, forcing the Spanish to take refuge in buildings near the main plaza. In the end, the Incan effort fails: After a few months, the Spanish retake Sacsayhuamán and then manage to cut off the Incans' supplies, forcing their surrender and finalizing Spain's control over Peru. The Spaniards will partly dismantle Sacsayhuamán and use its smaller blocks to build colonial Cusco. But even today, the outer walls of impossibly large interlocking stones still overlook the modern-day city, a symbol of the mysterious empire that once ruled here.

秘鲁亚马逊坦博帕塔国家保护区中的树冠 The tree canopy in the Tambopata National Reserve of the Peruvian Amazon (© Patrick Brandenburg/Tandem Stills + Motion)

Happy trees = Clean air

We're gazing up at the tree canopy in the Peruvian Amazon. The Amazon rainforest covers 60 percent of Peru's total landmass, stretching over 37,000 square miles.

Today is World Environment Day, and this year's theme is about air quality. Why show trees to talk about air? Because a healthy forest acts like a natural air filter. Plants absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide and help filter pollutants from the air. Robust forests mean clean air for all. Thanks, trees!

继续阅读...

星空迷