Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Norma Sutton <sweetspringfarm@gmail.com>]

http://www.s8int.com/sophis24.html

*2500 B.C. The Terraces of Moray*
*Moray Amphitheater Complex. Click and drag photo to resize.*

Moray is a great archaeological complex, formed by a system of platforms of
enormous terraces that overlap, acquiring the shape of a gigantic theater.
These beautiful terraces formed an agricultural laboratory, in which the
incas experimented and obtained improvements. Incredible advances were made
in agriculture, which was the incas' main activity and the basis of their
economic development.

. The Archaeological Complex of Moray

The daring conceptions of the Inca constructions had no limits. Throughout
the world, man has generally built from the ground upwards. In Moray they
worked down, removing tons of stone and rocks and using thousands of
workers
for many generations, to give form to many groups of terracing in an almost
perfect circular form.

It is possible that the word Moray comes from the term "a moray", corn
harvesting or from "moraya" or "moray" which is the name for dehydrated
potato. Barrionuevo describes the monument in the following way: "7 km.
from
Maras lie the hanging gardens of Moray, built in a gigantic trough. A
series
of circular platforms descend to a depth of 150 meters.

There the incas grew wheat, quinoa grain, panti, kantu flowers and other
plants as part of an experiment. A system of canals where the rain
accumulates today ensured the irrigation of the hanging terraces of the
amphitheater. Moray was with no doubt an artificial paradise of plants and
flowers, something like a greenhouse within the ground".

The decoration took advantage of the natural depressions in the terrain,
which they shaped based on an architectural plan. This included the
construction of a network of aqueducts and drains, for the irrigation and
release of water brought by the rains. It was so perfectly built that it
still works perfectly.

The Ande´s Agricultural Laboratory, The creation of Micro-climates

The experts agree that Moray is an agricultural complex. Today, on the
Maras
plateau, potatoes, lima bean, wheat and barley and little corn is grown due
to the fact that the weather is too cold for this crop.

Until recently, the farmers of Moray grew corn, but it was later prohibited
in order to protect the terraces. Historian Victor Angles says that at some
point the inhabitants of the plateau and the gorge became enemies,
interrupting trade.

This is what sparked the need to prepare the land for corn farming, and
they
decided to dig giant furrows to warm up the land in order to grow corn.

John Earl, a researcher into Andean history, measured the temperature of
these terraces at different levels, finding there were different
micro-climates. It was found that the lowest temperature was at the lower
level followed by the natural plain, and finally the last steps, which
registered lower temperatures still.

It is possible that the ancient settlers for some reason needed more corn,
which could have been the reason for the construction of this important
region. *CuscoOnline*

Comment 2

The Amphitheater of Moray (c. 2500 B.C.) circles natural meteor craters 40
miles from Cusco, Peru at about 10,000' altitude. The Aymara-speaking
culture from Tiahuauaco, Bolivia, which developed this acoustically-perfect
marvel had multiple uses in mind.

Ritual theater music and healing ceremonies involved large audiences
(260,000) probably drawn for salt mined in the valley (Urubamba River)
below, and evolving into important trade fairs. Agricultural seed
development went on during growing season, each level defined in
correspondence with equivalent altitudes for communities throughout the
Andes.... MarsEarthConnection

Moray

Moray (3,500 meters) lies 74 km from the city of Cusco. It is famous for
its
sunken amphitheater, made up of four circular terraces which appear to
disappear into the earth like an artificial crater.

The site was apparently an Inca agricultural research station designed for
experimenting with crops at various altitudes (some of which run down to
depths of 100 meters). It is believed that the terraces, built over
containing walls filled with fertile earth and watered by complex
irrigation
systems, enabled the Incas to grow more than 250 plant species.

The Moray agricultural Laboratory

Only 38 km from Cuzco, or half an hour by car, there is a mysterious place
known as "the four circular terraces of Moray", that gives the appearance
of
huge "fingerprints" embedded in a barren landscape, at 3,500 meters above
sea level.

Moray, used for adapting plants to hostile climatic conditions, was one
more
instance of the extremely high level of agricultural expertise achieved by
the Incas.

This was an agricultural research facility consisting of immense conical
depressions, some 45 to 88m in diameter, cut into the limestone, where
different climatic conditions were obtained according to terrace depth.

The terraces of this famous "sunken amphitheater" resembling an artificial
crater, were built with containment walls and then filled with fertile
earth
and irrigated using complex irrigation systems. Thus, the graduated thermal
variance between the surface and the bottom of the natural depressions was
used to adapt different varieties of plants (over 250 vegetable species) on
each terrace.

It is thought that the Incas used the experience obtained through their
experiments with this type of "greenhouse" to organize the agricultural
production of the whole of Tawantinsuyo.

Another Comment

Moray is a great archaeological complex, formed by admirable platforms
system , huge terraces that are superposed concentrically taking the form
of
a huge amphitheater.

These beautiful terraces were part of a big agricultural laboratory, where
the old Peruvian people experimented and achieved improvements. The got
incredible advances in the agriculture, which was their principal activity
and the base of the economic development.

The brilliant and bold conception of their inca constructions didn't have
limits for the old Peruvia people.

All around the world men generally made construccions from the floor up. In
Moray they worked from the floor down, taking out extraordinary amounts of
rocks and stones, using thousands of workers during several generations, to
form various groups of platforms in almost perfect circular form. Its
perfection is so amazing that nowadays is still working.


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