LIMA - Peru will submit a $132.5 million plan to the United Nations' cultural body on Tuesday to preserve the famous Inca citadel, Machu Picchu, from the ravages of tourism and avoid losing its status as a World Heritage site, a senior official said.
The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, warned in 2003 that it could put the stone citadel on its list of at-risk sites after experts said unrestricted tourism and landslides had damaged Machu Picchu and its surroundings.
"Today we will submit the Machu Picchu Master Plan to UNESCO, as Peru undertook to preserve its heritage," Maria Elena Cordova, a senior official at the National Institute of Culture, told Reuters.
Tuesday was the deadline for the plan to be presented.
The 400-page plan foresees investment of $132.5 million to preserve the ruined citadel and the Inca trail, which attracts thousands of hikers every year.
Cordova said that though Machu Picchu was permanently exposed to landslides during rainy periods, "that doesn't mean the citadel is sinking like some people say."
"The plan foresees satellite monitoring ... to measure earth movements," Cordova added.
Machu Picchu has become South America's best-known archeological site and attracts almost half a million tourists every year.
About 2,500 visitors a day troop through the stone site, perched on a mountain saddle 8,400 feet (2,560 metres) high, near the southern Peruvian city of Cuzco. The small town at the foot of the ruins is full to bursting.
American explorer Hiram Bingham discovered Machu Picchu in Peru's southern Andes under thick forest in 1911.
It was probably the sanctuary of Inca emperor Pachacutec and lay at the heart of the Inca empire, which at the start of the 15th century stretched from Colombia to northern Argentina.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
