BEIJING, July 29 (Xinhuanet) -- The South American country of Peru celebrates National Pavilion Day on Wednesday morning at the World Expo Park in Shanghai.
Peruvian territory was home to the Norte chico civilization, one of the oldest in the world, and to the Inca Empire, the largest state in Pre-Columbian America.
The rich cultural traditions have resulted in a wide diversity of expressions in fields such as art, cuisine, literature and music. Let's stop by the Peru Pavilion to find out more.
The Republic of Peru declared independence in 1831, on July 28th, which makes Wednesday the 189th National day of the country. The celebrations taking place on the expo stage echo the nationwide celebrations thousands of kilometers away in Peru.
Located in Zone C of expo park, the Peru Pavilion takes the theme of "the Factory of the Food, the Womb of City."
Peru's symbolic historic heritage - that is the mysterious Inca city Machu Picchu -- is often refereed to as "The Lost city of the Incas." The Incas started building the estate around AD 1400 but it was abandoned as an official site for the Inca rulers a century later at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire.
It was unknown to the outside world before being brought to international attention in 1911 by the American historian Hiram Bingham. Since then, Machu Picchu has become an important tourist attraction.
Machu Picchu was built in the classical Inca style, with polished dry-stone walls. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.
The proud heritage of Peru also leads us to another UNESCO Heritage site -- the Nazca Lines. It's a series of ancient geoglyphs located in the Nazca Desert of Peru.
The lines are shallow designs made in the ground by removing the ubiquitous reddish pebbles and uncovering the whitish ground beneath. Hundreds are simple lines or geometric shapes, more than seventy are designs of animal, bird, fishing or human figures. Scholars believe the Nazca Lines were created by the Nazca culture between 400 and 650 AD. The designs were thought to carry religious significance.
Apart from cultural heritage, the Peru Pavilion also displays the diversified cooking traditions of Peru and how they have made great contributions to world cuisine.
Peruvian cooking has a history of several hundred years, and it integrates cooking methods of local Indian and Spanish colonists.
(Source: cntv.cn)
Special Report: World Expo 2010
