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Seven Wonders of Peru chosen after 8 months of voting

(LIP-ir) -- After approximately 8 months and over 150 million votes, the Seven Wonders of Peru contest came to a close Tuesday night at a ceremony held at El Comercio's headquarters.

Los Baños del Inca, also known as hot springs or Inca Baths in Cajamarca, a city located in the northern highlands of Peru, received the greatest number of votes (9,915,053) in the Seven Wonders of Peru contest.

As soon as Los Baños del Inca was named the most popular wonder in Peru, the delegation present at the ceremony broke out in cheers and applause.

Wilson Flores, Cajamarca's regional secretary walked up on stage and was given the award by Alejandro Miró Quesada, the director of El Comercio.

With 9,504,376 votes, El Valle del Colca or the Colca Canyon in Arequipa, a region in southwestern Peru, was the second most popular wonder chosen by the Andean country's people.

The mayor of Chivay, Jorge Cueva, received the award for the canyon, which is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the United States.

In third place, Cajamarca was honored once again for its Los Frailones (The Friars) stone forest, also known as the Stone Monks.

Other places in Peru which were chosen as the country's Seven Wonders were the Kuélap Fortress in the Amazonas, the Huayllay Stone Forest in Pasco as well as Alto Mayo Valley and Gran Pajeten in San Martin.

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# Dan Ott says :
26 March, 2008 [ 16:41 ]

I was surprised to see that the Queshwachaca was not on this list.

# mathilde says :
26 March, 2008 [ 17:08 ]

What is Queshwachaca ?

# Jim Miklaszewski says :
26 March, 2008 [ 21:21 ]

Where are you Machu Picchu? 

# Dan Ott says :
26 March, 2008 [ 22:32 ]

Queshwachaca, which means grass bridge, is about 3-4 hours to the south of Cusco and spans the Apurimac.  It is a true wonder as it is the only surviving Inca grass bridge.  Each year the bridge is rebuilt by the neighboring communities.  PromPeru is promoting it and its pictures have been in more than one of their ads here in the States.

I haven't been there yet, but I see it as important for two reasons.  It is the last survivor of its kind.  It is also a symbol of Andean community and ancient tradition.  Things like this are dying out around the globe and this is one that must be saved.

I also cannot fathom why Sacsahuaman is not on the list.  I'm honestly more impressed by it than by Machu Picchu.  Aside from the impressive architecture, it was the scene of historic and heroic events.  Even today discoveries are being made at Sacsahuaman.

A few years ago I was thinking up my own list of Peru's Wonders.  Honestly, there are more than 7 great wonders in Peru.  The Condor, the Vicuna, Ayacucho's Holy Week come quickly to mind.  How about Chan Chan, the tombs of Sipan? (verse not intended).  Maca, Quinoa, coca, the Amazon river.  

There are so many wonders there and it is important to remember that not all of them are man made.  You could also include the resiliant heart of the Peruvian People.  

# Guiselle Vargas says :
27 March, 2008 [ 14:00 ]

Hello everybody:
I'm peruvian but I don't know every archeological place of my country. In my opinion, this kind of contest help the community to be aware of our culture. Maybe it would be a nice idea to have a contest about the least known archeological places in Peru.
Have a nice day

# Dan Ott says :
27 March, 2008 [ 15:45 ]

Guiselle,

You may or may not have heard of these two ruins, but they are good ones that I hope to see again.  You need to go through Ayacucho to get to them but one is the Intiwatana in the town of Vischongo.  It has a small temple complex with a spring and a lagoon (pomacocha) which was shaped into a Puma.  I loved the place. 

Then you pass through the Vischongo Ravine, which my dad says is one of the prettiest places he's ever seen, to get to the better known ruins at Vilcashuaman.

Vilcashuaman is very significant as it has the best surviving example of an Inca administrative pyramid (Usnu).  It is very picturesque as well, behind the pyramid is a courtyard and on one side only a single gate remains.  I don't know if it has a common name, but I call it the Vilcaspunku.  If you want to take an award winning photo, take one of the Vilcaspunku with the adobe house with the clay tile roof in the background.

Vilcashuaman also has an Inca Sun Temple with a colonial Spanish church built on top of it and some other carved rocks throughout the city. 

One thing I found impressive while there is that the children are taught not to ask for money from visitors.  The city leaders teach them the history of the town and about the ruins.  The children then act as tour guides for a tip.  It is a model for other small towns in Peru that have an interest from outsiders.

Vilcashuaman also has its own festival similar to the Inti Raymi, but much smaller, the Vilcas Raymi.