Network of underground galleries under a temple 3.000 years old in the Peruvian Andes, archaeologists have discovered.
The Temple of Chavin de Juadar, located in the northern part of the Andes, was once a religious and administrative centre for the inhabitants of the region.
The underground passages were discovered earlier in May and, because of their features, are believed to have been built before the temple's labyrinthine galleries, according to John Rick, a Stanford University archaeologist who participated in the excavation.
At an altitude of 3,200 metres, at least 35 interconnected underground galleries have been found, built between 1,200 and 200 BC in the foothills of the Andes.
"It's a different form of construction. It has features from earlier periods that we've never seen in galleries," John Rick said.
The temple, declared a World Heritage Site in 1985, was the inspiration for the leaders of the Peruvian army's eponymous operation to construct a network of tunnels to rescue 72 people held hostage by rebels of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima in 1997.
Source: Proto Thema
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