#marcahuamachuco

A surf trip should involve more waves than mountains, but man plans and God laughs — as my mother might say — and so the two of us find ourselves wandering ruins atop a 3,000-meter peak in northern Peru, surveying a sea not of waves but of undulating mountains disappearing into a dense fog. Our surfboards are stowed inertly in our car. Masters of timing, our surfing adventure coincided with El…

The archaeological research team working at Marcahuamachuco, Peru, has announced what it calls the “first important finding” in determining the site’s historical process: a collection of 10 metal figurines and many other ornamental objects, believed to be part of an offering made during the construction of the site.

Marcahuamachuco, an enigmatic 1,600-year-old archeological complex built from stone in the northern Peruvian Andes, is emerging bit by bit from oblivion and could become a beacon of tourism on the scale of Machu Picchu.

Spread over 590 acres (240 hectares) on a plateau more than 12,000 feet (3,700 meters) high in the mountains, the pre-Incan site embodies all the evils that have befallen Peru's archeological treasures.

Though still full of mysteries -- who lived here, and why, is unknown -- the complex has been plundered of artifacts that might help unlock its secrets, and has long been subjected to the depredations of nature.

But it's still there, groups of sometimes monumental stone building, massive rounded walls that rise 10 to 15 meters (yards), galleries, a rectangular plaza and dwellings, and an urban religious center with a sanctuary.