Marpa is a ruined

pre-Hispanic In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European c ...

town located along the Cotahuasi Canyon in the

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

range of southern

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 ...

. The Cotahuasi River arises in the Wansu mountain range, cutting a route south-west and ending some 300 km later as the

Ocoña River The Ocoña River () is a river located in the Arequipa region in southern Peru. It helped form Peru's deep canyon walls. See also *List of rivers of Peru *List of rivers of the Americas by coastline This list of rivers of the Americas by coa ...

mouthing into the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. Declared a ''"Zona Reserva Turistica"'' in 1988 very little is known about the canyon and Marpa. Rafting expeditions first ran the canyon in 1994. In pre-Hispanic times the

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 ...

road along the canyon was well-used, and sections have survived, as have the ruins of agricultural terraces, staircases and ancient tombs. The Inca road may have been built along the route of an older road built by the

Wari culture The Wari () were a Pre-Inca cultures, Middle Horizon civilization that flourished in the south-central Andes and coastal area of modern-day Peru, from about 500 to 1000 AD. Wari ruins, Wari, as the former capital city was called, is located no ...

, a dominant force in the highlands of central and southern Peru between 500AD and 900AD.

External links

*
Rafting the Cotahuasi: One Woman's Whitewater Adventure - Jess Tuerk

References

Archaeological sites in Peru Ruins in Peru Archaeological sites in the Department of Arequipa {{Arequipa-geo-stub