Ancient Peru Pyramid Spotted By Satellite

[ThePhoenix]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27010998

Infrared and multispectral images reveal 9,000-square-mile structure

A new remote sensing technology has peeled away layers of mud and rock near Peru's Cahuachi desert to reveal an ancient adobe pyramid, Italian researchers announced on Friday at a satellite imagery conference in Rome.

Nicola Masini and Rosa Lasaponara of Italy's National Research Council (CNR) discovered the pyramid by analyzing images from the satellite Quickbird, which they used to penetrate the Peruvian soil.

The researchers investigated a test area along the river Nazca. Covered by plants and grass, it was about a mile away from Cahuachi's archaeological site, which contains the remains of what is believed to be the world's biggest mud city.

[CJCRANE]

1. Cool! nt

[TheWraith]

2. I think that subheadline is wrong. Really wrong.

9,000 square miles is about 20 times the size of New York City. There's no way there could be a pyramid that large constructed by humans. They mention a 300 x 328 foot base... I assume they meant to say 90,000 square feet.

[rayofreason]

3. Numeracy...

...is not a media strongpoint.

[TheWraith]

4. Oh, and before anybody freaks on me...

...That's the size of the city limits. The metropolitan area is, of course, more like 6,500 square miles... making a 9,000 square mile pyramid still impossible.

[Posteritatis]

5. I'm assuming it was 9000 square meters and some dumbass editor 'fixed' the units (nt)

[Greyskye]

6. ..."pyramid extending over a 97,000-square-foot (9,000-square-meter) area"

"After the researchers optimized the data with special algorithms, the result was a detailed visualization of a pyramid extending over a 97,000-square-foot (9,000-square-meter) area."

[Judi Lynn]

7. This is REALLY good news. From the article:

~snip~
Between the year 300 and 350, two natural disasters — a powerful flood and a devastating earthquake — hit Cahuachi. The site lost its sacred power to the Nazca, who then abandoned the area.

But before leaving, they sealed all monuments and buried them under the desert sand.

"Up to now, we have completely unearthed and restored a huge asymmetrical pyramid, known as the Grand Pyramid. A terraced temple and a smaller pyramid are in an advanced state of excavation," Giuseppe Orefici, an archaeologist who has spent decades excavating Cahuachi and has also worked with the CNR researchers, wrote in the conference paper.

Featuring a 300-by-328-foot base, the newly discovered pyramid consists of at least "four degrading terraces which suggest a truncated pyramid similar to the Grand Pyramid." With seven levels, this imposing monument was sculpted from the landscape and enhanced by large adobe walls.

It will be hard waiting to see what they discover about this site. Wonderful. Thank you.

Here's a photo, and link concerning Cahuachi:


http://www.mysteryperu.com/eng/co_cahuachi.html

[TheWraith]

8. They decommissioned a pyramid? Okay, that's kind of cool.

Style points for that.