The oldest solar observatory in the Americas has been awarded Unesco world heritage status and dubbed “a masterpiece of human creative genius”.

The 2,300-year-old archaeological ruin Chankillo which lies in a desert valley in northern Peru was one of 13 new global sites added to the list of cultural monuments.

Thirteen towers that align on a ridge are the best-known feature of the ancient site which dates between 250 and 200 BCE. The towers functioned as a calendar using the rising and setting arcs of the sun to mark not only equinoxes and solstices but even to define the precise time of year to within one or two days. The site also includes an imposing triple-walled hilltop complex, known as the Fortified Temple set in the barren landscape of the Casma river valley.

Serra do Divisor National Park on Brazil’s border with Peru is home to numerous endemic animals and more than a thousand plant species, but faces a double threat from a planned highway and a bid to downgrade its protected status.
The downgrade from national park to “environmental protection area” would paradoxically open up this Andean-Amazon transition region to deforestation, cattle ranching, and mining — activities that are currently prohibited in the park.
The highway project, meant to give Acre another land route to the Pacific via Peru, has been embraced by the government of President Jair Bolsonaro, which has already taken the first steps toward its construction.
Indigenous and river community leaders say they have not been consulted about the highway, as required by law, and have not been told about the proposed downgrade of the park, both of which they warn will have negative socioenvironmental impacts.

A huge container ship that blocked the Suez Canal in March – disrupting global trade – is finally leaving the waterway after Egypt signed a compensation deal with its owners and insurers.

‘Peruavo-kun’ is the new-image character that will be at the forefront of PromPeru’s avocado promotions in Japan.

Wearing a Chullo, a traditional Peruvian knit hat, Peruavo-kun will feature in PromPeru’s Instagram campaigns and in-store promotions in the Japanese market, with the goal to increase export volumes of avocados from Peru.

The branding activity is new territory for Peru, the second largest exporter of avocados in the world.

The Mexican government has condemned unauthorised building work being carried out at the ancient city of Teotihuacán, near Mexico City.

The UN’s international council on monuments and sites (Icomos) said bulldozers threatened to raze as many as seven acres at the protected site.

Teotihuacán is a Unesco World Heritage Site and is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the country.

UN officials raised the alarm about building work at the site on Monday.

Icomos Mexico said the excavation work threatened “archaeological, housing and monumental remains which are also being looted” and called on the Mexican government to decisively intervene so that experts can get in to evaluate the damage.

Experts from the site say they began to raise the alarm earlier this year after construction began, including the use of heavy machinery, on the complex’s outskirts when supervision was limited because of the pandemic.

A Mayan urn, made between 900 and 1600 AD, is returning to Mexico after spending more than 50 years at a college in the United States.