[HN Gopher] Peru's Great Urban Experiment (2023)
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       Peru's Great Urban Experiment (2023)
        
       Author : Thevet
       Score  : 42 points
       Date   : 2025-03-16 03:37 UTC (19 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (archaeology.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (archaeology.org)
        
       | gignico wrote:
       | I've visited Chan Chan during my honeymoon last year, it's
       | impressive! All Peru is impressive, north to south. Highly
       | recommended!
        
         | yannis wrote:
         | Great you visited it. One reads all these cautionary notices
         | about traveling to Peru. What was your experience? Did you
         | visit on a group tour? Would love to know more.
        
           | gignico wrote:
           | Yes, Peru (and South America in general) can be fairly
           | dangerous for people used to Europe or the US, but if you let
           | you be guided by someone who knows where to go, it is a
           | wonderful place. My wife herself is Peruvian but lived in
           | Europe for her whole life so it was a new experience for her
           | as well. We travelled on a tour planned by a travel agency
           | ad-hoc for our honeymoon, so we were alone (not in a group)
           | but we were escorted by private guides for all the travel,
           | who organized both the transports and the touristic
           | activities. Schedules were tight so it was challenging, but
           | really rewarding! On top of the usual famous places like
           | Machu Pichu I also greatly recommend the amazonian region. We
           | went to a lodge on the Maranon river some kilometers from the
           | source of the Amazon River and met local tribes (including
           | one of the _five_ last speakers of a disappearing local
           | ancient language). Great memories for sure!
        
           | bregma wrote:
           | I went there with my younger kids a few years ago. It was
           | like visiting the USA only fewer guns and authoritarian
           | people in uniforms everywhere, and don't drink the water out
           | of the tap. Also maybe pay in cash everywhere since no one
           | takes cards. Lima is big and like big cities everywhere be on
           | your guard in touristy areas because a lot of people make a
           | living there and not always through legal means.
           | 
           | Hiking the Inca trail to Maccu Piccu and seeing the Nazca
           | line in person though, worth it. Just stay in hostels and
           | travel by bus. A bit of Spanish would help but we got by OK
           | without it.
        
           | smpnav wrote:
           | Peru has had a lot of bad press but if you use your common
           | sense you'll be fine. I live in Lima, for example the tourist
           | areas here have a high police presence and are safe.
        
       | yannis wrote:
       | Very interesting article, especially if you interested in how
       | societies become organized and urbanized. Two fundamental
       | requirements for a city, is a source of water, a centralized
       | economy, such as a palace, that stores food and artifacts, and
       | lastly be enclosed in walls. I am surprised that no such
       | perimeter walls existed, although the palaces were surrounded by
       | walls.
        
         | ForTheKidz wrote:
         | Yes, who can think of Los Angeles without considering its
         | massive and all-encompassing walls.
        
           | mmanfrin wrote:
           | It truly would not be a safe settlement without the great
           | Angeline Walls keeping Los Gigantes out from the north.
        
           | asdff wrote:
           | It does have massive, and all encompassing walls. They aren't
           | built like how we used to build defensive walls in history,
           | those are obsolete. Instead they are lined with chainlink and
           | razor wire, contain radar and other systems for across the
           | horizon detection, have runways for aircraft, silos for
           | ballistic missiles, magazines for gunships, missile carriers,
           | submarines, satellites and other craft in outer space with
           | classified capabilities, entire datacenters. It is one of the
           | most well defended positions in human history.
        
           | pessimizer wrote:
           | The two fundamental requirements for a city are:
           | 
           | 1) a source of water,
           | 
           | 2) a palace or other place to center an economy, and
           | 
           | 3) to be enclosed in walls.
           | 
           | We know the last because we have yet to discover any traces
           | of the walls of any unwalled cities.
        
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       (page generated 2025-03-16 23:01 UTC)