Mameria is an area of high-elevation

jungle jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''jaṅgala'' ...

to the northeast of the Paucartambo range in southeast

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

, drained by the Mameria River, an affluent of the Nistrón River. Until the 1960s this remote and sparsely populated area would have been considered a part of the Callanga jungle area.

Machiguenga The Machiguenga (also Matsigenka, Matsigenga) are an indigenous people who live in the high jungle, or ''montaña'', area on the eastern slopes of the Andes and in the Amazon Basin jungle regions of southeastern Peru. Their population in 2020 amou ...

peoples, fleeing the slavery that they were subject to along the Yavero River, fled to this area which acquired its current name from the Machiguenga observing that "mameri," which means "there are none," regarding the lack of fish in the river. Mameria has pre-Columbian stone ruins that are the remains of ancient

Inca The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The History of the Incas, Inca ...

coca Coca is any of the four cultivated plants in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America. Coca is known worldwide for its psychoactive alkaloid, cocaine. Coca leaves contain cocaine which acts as a mild stimulant when chewed or ...

plantations, some of which were sacked by the Peruvian helicopter-borne General Ludwig Essenwanger in 1980, a year after the area was first brought to the attention of the outside world by the also helicopter-borne expedition made by French-Peruvian explorers

Herbert Herbert may refer to: People * Herbert (musician), a pseudonym of Matthew Herbert * Herbert (given name) * Herbert (surname) Places Antarctica * Herbert Mountains, Coats Land * Herbert Sound, Graham Land Australia * Herbert, Northern Territor ...

and Nicole Cartagena, guided by Peruvian campesino/adventurer Goyo Toledo. The Cartagena's book, ''Paititi, dernier refuge des Incas'' (1981) recounts their expedition of their search for the lost city of

Paititi Paititi is a legendary Inca lost city or utopian rich land. It allegedly lies east of the Andes, hidden somewhere within the remote rainforests of southeast Peru, northern Bolivia or northwest Brazil. The Paititi legend in Peru revolves around the ...

. In 1980 Goyo Toledo returned—on foot—to Mameria, the first known person since the ancient Incans to do so. The next year his brother Gabino, and Guillermo Mamani, made their way to Mameria to look for, and find, Goyo. In 1983 an architect/adventurer from Cusco,

César Vilchez Cesar or César may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''César'' (film), a 1936 French romantic drama * ''César'' (play), a play by Marcel Pagnolt Places * Cesar, Portugal * Cesar Department, Colombia * Cesar River, in Colombia * Cesar R ...

, his nephew César Medina, Carlos Cartagena, and Manuel Guevarra found their way to Mameria in a grueling two-month journey during which they nearly perished from hunger. Between 1984 and 1989 the American explorer

Gregory Deyermenjian Gregory Deyermenjian (born 1949, Boston) is a psychologist and explorer. In 1981 he visited the ruins of Vilcabamba la Vieja at Espíritu Pampa, and then turned his attention to the northeast and north of Cusco, Peru. Since the mid-1980s he has ma ...

made five expeditions to Mameria—for three of which he was accompanied by Peruvian explorer Paulino Mamani H.—conducting anthropological as well as archaeological research concerning the area's Machiguenga inhabitants and ancient archaeological remains. In the mid-1990s the Peruvian adventurer Darwin Moscoso made a long journey to Mameria, later producing a fine map of the area. An in-depth review of the history and archaeology of Mameria can be found in Deyermenjian's article ''Mameria: An Incan Site Complex in the High-Altitude Jungles of Southeast Peru'', in the Volume 3 Number 4 (2003) issue of Athena Review. Deyermenjian sees Mameria as having functioned as an Incan frontier settlement, providing coca to the Incas of the highlands in pre-Conquest times, which became totally forgotten after the fall of the highland Incas to the Spaniards, protected until even now by its remote location, difficulty of access, and the difficulty of life there.

References

* {{coord, 12.7718, S, 71.8470, W, source:wikidata, display=title Natural regions of South America Geography of Peru Archaeological sites in Peru