El Perú (book)

El Perú: Itinerarios de Viajes is an expansive written work covering a variety of topics in the natural history of Peru, written by the prominent Italian-born Peruvian geographer and scientist Antonio Raimondi in the latter half of the 19th century. The work was compiled from extensive and detailed notes Raimondi took while criss-crossing the country, studying the nation's geography, geology, meteorology, botany, zoology, ethnography, and archaeology; El Perú focuses to some extent on each of these topics and others. The first volume was published in 1874; several more volumes were published both before Raimondi's death and posthumously from his notes, the last being released in 1913, making a five volume set. The volumes are a classic example of exploration scholarship, and form one of the earliest and broadest scientific reviews of Peru's natural and cultural heritage.

References

Peru

Coordinates: 10°S 76°W / 10°S 76°W / -10; -76

Peru (ⁱ/pəˈruː/; Spanish: Perú [peˈɾu]; Quechua: Piruw [pɪɾʊw];Aymara: Piruw [pɪɾʊw]), officially the Republic of Peru (Spanish:  República del Perú ), 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 west by the Pacific Ocean. Peru is an extremely biodiverse country with habitats ranging from the arid plains of the Pacific coastal region in the west to the peaks of the Andes mountains vertically extending from the north to the southeast of the country to the tropical Amazon Basin rainforest in the east with the Amazon river.

Peruvian territory was home to ancient cultures spanning from the Norte Chico civilization in Caral, one of the oldest in the world, to the Inca Empire, the largest state in Pre-Columbian America. The Spanish Empire conquered the region in the 16th century and established a Viceroyalty with its capital in Lima, which included most of its South American colonies. Ideas of political autonomy later spread throughout Spanish America and Peru gained its independence, which was formally proclaimed in 1821. After the battle of Ayacucho, three years after proclamation, Peru ensured its independence. After achieving independence, the country remained in recession and kept a low military profile until an economic rise based on the extraction of raw and maritime materials struck the country, which ended shortly before the war of the Pacific. Subsequently, the country has undergone changes in government from oligarchic to democratic systems. Peru has gone through periods of political unrest and internal conflict as well as periods of stability and economic upswing.

El Perú (Maya site)

El Perú (also known as Waka' ), is a pre-Columbian Maya archeological site occupied during the Preclassic and Classic cultural chronology periods (roughly 500 BC to 800 AD). The site was the capital of a Maya city-state and is located near the banks of the San Pedro River in the Department of Petén of northern Guatemala. El Perú is 60 km (37 mi) west of Tikal.

Research

The Maya city of Waka' was rediscovered by oil prospectors in the 1960s. In the 1970s Ian Graham, a Harvard researcher, documented monuments at the site. Then in 2003 David Freidel, of Southern Methodist University, and Héctor Escobedo, of the University of San Carlos, began to excavate Waka'.

Etymology

The site was named "El Perú" when rediscovered in the twentieth century. Hieroglyphs identified and deciphered at the site have indicated that the ancient name for the site was Waka'. While both names are currently used interchangeably, El Perú predominates on extant maps. In the published literature, a conflated name is generally used, El Perú-Waka'.