Marpa, Peru
Encyclopedia
Marpa is a ruined pre-Hispanic
Pre-Columbian
The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...

 town located along the Cotahuasi Canyon
Cotahuasi Canyon
Cotahuasi Canyon near the city of Arequipa in Peru is the deepest canyon in the world. Its maximum depth is 3535 metres in the vicinity of Ninancocha, 335 metres more than the Colca Canyon. The Cotahuasi Canyon is an impressive chasm that the river has eroded between two enormous mountain massifs:...

 in the Andes
Andes
The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...

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

.

The Cotahuasi River arises in the Cordillera de Huanzo, cutting a route south-west and ending some 300km later as the Ocoña River
Ocoña River
The Ocoña River is a river located in the Arequipa region in southern Peru. It helped form Peru's deep canyon walls....

 mouthing into the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

. 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 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 Huari culture
Huari Culture
The Wari were a Middle Horizon civilization that flourished in the south-central Andes and coastal area of modern-day Peru, from about CE 500 to 1000...

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

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