Colca Canyon

From Freepedia

Image:Colca Canyon.jpg Colca Canyon is the canyon of the Colca River in southern Peru. It is located about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Arequipa.

Long thought to be the deepest canyon on earth at 10,725 ft (3,269 m), it is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the United States. The Cotahuasi Canyon nearby to the northwest is now known to be deeper at 11,488 ft (3,501 m), and the Yarlung Tsangpo Canyon along the Brahmaputra in Tibet is now thought to be the deepest canyon in the world at 16,650 ft (5,075 m). Since they are such major features of the landscape, the Colca and Cotahuasi canyons are both easily recognizable in even low-resolution satellite photos of the region.

The Colca River starts high in the Andes at Condorama Crucero Alto and changes its name to Majes, and then to Camana before reaching the Pacific Ocean. Parts of the canyon are habitable, and Inca and pre-Inca terraces are still cultivated along the less precipitous canyon walls. The small town of Chivay is on the upper Colca River, where the canyon is not so deep but where many terraces are present in the canyon and continue for many kilometers downstream. As the canyon deepens downriver, a series of small villages is spread out over the approximately 35 mi (56 km) between Chivay and the village of Cabanaconde. The canyon reaches its greatest depth nearby, and in contrast, only about 15 mi (24 km) to the southeast rises 20,630-ft (6,288-m) Nevado Ampato, a snow-capped extinct volcano.

Image:Colca Canyon Condor.jpg The canyon is the habitat of the great South American condor, a species that has seen world-wide effort to preserve it.

The Spanish laid out towns along the canyon and built churches there, but the towns did not thrive and have faded out of memory. In the 1980s, the Majes Hydroelectric Project built roads and opened the area to outsiders. Access today is usually through Arequipa.

Cruz del Condor is a popular tourist stop to view the condors, which hunt in the early morning and late afternoon. At this point the canyon floor is 3,960 ft (1,200 m) below the rim of the canyon.