The forest around Machu Picchu is still giving up secrets. A Peruvian and Polish team flying lidar-equipped drones over Mount Yanantin has mapped about 1.5 miles of previously unknown roads, along with terraces, platforms and circular structures hidden under the trees, Archaeology magazine reported on Oct. 19.
The researchers believe that is only part of the picture. “There are certainly at least twice as many out there, though,” said Mariusz Ziółkowski of the University of Warsaw.
Drone lidar maps Mount Yanantin beneath the canopy
Lidar, short for Light Detection and Ranging, fires pulses of laser light at the ground and records what bounces back, building a dense three-dimensional “point cloud” of the terrain, according to NOAA. Because it can map the shape of the ground beneath thick vegetation, the method suits forested slopes like these, a reminder that plenty of historic sites that won’t be around forever are still being mapped for the first time. Travelers who like their history with a steep hike attached can browse other unexpected destinations for overseas adventure travel.
The survey was led this year by Bartłomiej Ćmielewski of Wrocław University of Science and Technology, who supervised the drone flights, Science in Poland reported. The team worked on the eastern side of the Andes at roughly 2,000 to 2,700 meters, or about 6,500 to 8,900 feet, in an area across from the main citadel near Mandor. The exact location has not been disclosed, to protect the site.
Zigzag roads, terraces and circular platforms
The scans picked out more than 2.5 kilometers of previously unknown roads, roughly 1.5 miles, including one clearly defined section at least 1.2 kilometers long. Some are narrow, zigzagging paths less than a meter wide. One forest path was already known to people living nearby, but much of the network had not been recorded.
Checking the results on the ground was slow going. Crews had to clear vegetation with machetes, and one team member needed three hours to cover 250 meters. “This illustrates the scale of the challenge,” Ziółkowski said.
The finds sit inside a landscape that UNESCO has protected since 1983. The Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu spans the eastern Andean slopes down into the upper Amazon basin, with habitats ranging from high grasslands to cloud forest, and UNESCO already notes an extensive road and trail system, irrigation canals and agricultural terraces across the area. The citadel itself sits about 2,430 meters above sea level and has roughly 200 structures, which keeps it on lists of the world’s most iconic landmarks.
Inca-style layout, with hints of something older
The road layout is consistent with Inca construction methods, but dating has not been established. Ziółkowski said some features may predate the Inca and could have been modified or reused later.
That matters because Machu Picchu is usually treated as a 15th-century Inca creation. Wikipedia’s summary of the research puts construction around 1450, likely as an estate for the emperor Pachacuti, with radiocarbon work pointing to occupation from about 1420 to 1530. At least ten Inca roads already link the citadel to nearby monuments.
“This discovery complements and significantly modifies hypotheses regarding the functioning of the entire complex,” Ziółkowski said. Within Machu Picchu National Park, more than 60 archaeological sites are linked by road networks, and he said the new roads suggest the right bank of the Urubamba River also saw significant change in the Inca era. For a site that draws more than 1.5 million visitors a year, it is a reminder that some of the most interesting ground lies off the usual route, much like the pilgrimages that aren’t what most pilgrims expect.
More lidar flights and a possible dig
The team is not finished. Ćmielewski said the lidar survey will certainly continue and that the researchers want to expand the area they cover, since only the first stage of analysis is complete. Along with Peruvian colleagues, the researchers plan to seek a permit for at least targeted excavations to expose sections of the roads, and they are discussing further cooperation with the local office of Peru’s Ministry of Culture in Cusco.
The project is funded by the University of Warsaw, whose Centre for Andean Studies has worked in the area since 2008. The Polish group is one of only two foreign teams authorized to conduct archaeological work around Machu Picchu; the other is Japanese. The wider crew includes Jan Kłaput of the University of Warsaw, Paweł Dąbek of Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Peruvian archaeologist Jeff Rocky Contreras Soto and Nino del Solar Velarde of Cusco’s Machu Picchu archaeological research unit.
For now, the hidden roads stay hidden to visitors, which suits a fragile site. Anyone dreaming of the trip may want to start with the broader idea of adventure vacations and leave the machete work to the archaeologists, while fans of grand old monuments closer to home have plenty of bucket-list American landmarks to explore.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Image: Diego Delso – CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons
