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MACHU PICCHU TOURIST
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AREA 32,592ha
LAND TENURE Private ownership (property of four main "predios":
Mandorpampa, Q'ente, Torontoy and Santa Rita de Q'ente).
ALTITUDE Ranges from 1,800m to 3,800m
PHYSICAL FEATURES The site lies in the Selva Alta zone, and includes
part of a highly dissected mountain massif of the high Andes plateau,
which rises steeply from the Urubamba River valley. The area around the
ruins of Macchu Picchu consists of many rocky pinnacles with exposures
supporting thin soils, although the area also includes sites with
complex systems of old Inca terraced land constructed to conserve the
soils. The Urubamba alluvial basin is an almost continuous zone of
arable and pastoral farming land. Geologically the area is very complex,
being a combination of marine sedimentary rocks of the Cretaceous-Tertiary
period and intrusive volcanic material, including lavas and granites.
The sedimentary deposits include Ordovician schists, slates and
quartzite. Streams and rivers feed the major Rio Urubamba valley system
as well as a number of smaller valleys in the north such as that of
Quillabamba (MAA, 1986).
CLIMATE The annual temperature averages 16°C and annual rainfall is
between 1500mm and 3000mm at low altitudes. At 2,500m altitude the
average temperature drops to 10.2°C, and annual rainfall is 2170mm. The
dry season lasts from May to September and the wet season from October
to April.
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