麻豆淫院

Most people who see something curious during world travels might briefly muse about it, perhaps weave it into a cocktail-party anecdote, but otherwise let it go.

But most people are not like Ruth Wright or her husband, Ken.

"Without modern surveying instruments, the Inca built the canal on a 3-percent slope leading into Machu Picchu. 鈥淗ad the slope been too steep, the water would have jumped out of the canal; if too shallow, it would have flowed too slowly.鈥�

When Ruth returned to Boulder from a 1974 trip to Machu Picchu, the imperial Inca city in modern-day Peru, she was vexed by this question: How did the Inca get a reliable source of water to a city sitting high on an Andean ridge?

鈥淲hen we hiked around, there were a series of carved granite drops, and they looked alike, and they had a backdrop and side where they had niches, and you could see water stains,鈥� Wright recalls, adding:

鈥淲ater stains: That usually means something, right?鈥�

That question launched a four-decade pursuit of answers and ultimately transformed Ruth and Ken Wright into world-renowned experts on the hydrogeology, paleohydrology and civil engineering of Machu Picchu and other Incan sites.

For their work in Peru, they鈥檝e received high praise, awards and honorary degrees. In 2002, National Geographic magazine consulted them for an artistic rendering of Machu Picchu as it would have appeared on winter solstice 1530. Today, they are consulting with the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian on an.

Ruth, with the late Alfredo Valencia Zegarra, wrote听,听which draws on the Wrights鈥� and Zegarra鈥檚 careful research and has sold 100,000 copies.

But the Wrights spent two decades just trying to get Peru鈥檚 permission to do the hydrological research. This is surprising, given their impressive resum茅s.

While still in law school, Ruth, a 1972 graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder Law School, wrote the documents that the citizens of Boulder later adopted as the city鈥檚 55-foot limit on the height of buildings. She served in the Colorado House of Representatives for 14 years and was the second woman in state history to serve as minority leader.

In 1961, Ken founded Wright Water Engineers, which has amassed a long list of awards and whose work includes being a special consultant to Colorado Gov. Richard Lamm on the rehabilitation of the Big Thompson Canyon, which suffered a deadly flood in 1976. He also served on the Boulder City Council.

Such people get things done. But when Ruth and Ken repeatedly asked Peruvian officials for permits to conduct an archaeological investigation into the Machu Picchu water system, they got nowhere.

Later, they asked newly minted Sen. Tim Wirth for a letter of reference, which he provided to the Peruvian Embassy. When Wirth later became Assistant Secretary of State for Global Affairs, his earlier letter was noted by the Peruvian Embassy in Washington.

Wheels began turning at the Foreign Office in Lima. It did not take long before the Wrights were busy working at Machu Picchu.

Once Ruth, Ken and Wright Water Engineers got started, the Peruvians 鈥渓oved our work,鈥� Ruth notes.

Ruth gestures toward a line of medals hung on the couple鈥檚 dining-room wall. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e all from Peru, various universities and two really special ones, which are presidential medals for distinguished service to the Republic.鈥�

What made the initially hesitant Peruvian government lavish such praise on the Wrights? 鈥淲e have helped bring back the legacy of the Inca, especially to the young people of Peru,鈥� Ruth said.

Invading Spaniards in the 16th听century overran the Inca civilization. But the work of the Wrights and others underscores that, as Ken notes, 鈥淭hey were such good organizers, good engineers, such good builders, and they had a very high standard of care.鈥�

Revealing such things to contemporary Peruvians helps demonstrate that their ancestors 鈥渨ere very special people,鈥� Ken observes.

Ruth, Ken and the late Alfredo Valencia Zegarra, an archaeologist in Cusco, Peru, collaborated on several books. But the one most likely to find its way into the average person鈥檚 hands is Ruth and Alfredo鈥檚听Machu Picchu Guidebook: A Self-Guided Tour,听first published in 2001.

Although the conquistadors crushed the Incan civilization, the Spaniards apparently never visited Machu Picchu.

The place sits 1,500 feet above the Urubamba River, which carved the Sacred Valley and ultimately flows to the Amazon. Higher in the Sacred Valley, which is dotted with Incan archaeological marvels, the climate is drier.

On the Urubamba River just below Machu Picchu lies Aguas Caliente (now called Machu Picchu Pueblo), where the rain sometimes comes in sheets. The densely vegetated and warm locale can obscure the fact that, at 8,000 feet in elevation, Machu Picchu is about as high as Aspen, Colo.

The Machu Picchu Guidebook听explains what visitors are seeing section by section, room by room, sometimes rock by rock. It includes a chapter on 鈥淚nca Water Management.鈥�

The Incas did not need water for irrigation, given the 77 inches of annual rainfall at the site. But for drinking, bathing and other uses, the Inca built a half-mile long canal that channeled up to 30 gallons of water per minute to the city.

Without modern surveying instruments, the Inca built the canal on a 3-percent slope leading into Machu Picchu. 鈥淗ad the slope been too steep, the water would have jumped out of the canal; if too shallow, it would have flowed too slowly鈥� to the first of 16 fountains, Wright and Zegarra write.

The Machu Picchu Guidebook,听published by Good Earth Publishing in Boulder, is now in its second edition. It has also been published by Peru鈥檚 Universidad Nacional de Ingenier铆a, Facultad de Ingenier铆a Civil.

With a stack of books and scholarly articles on Inca engineering to their credit, they continue to study Inca sites. Their most recent journal article has just been submitted for review.

Neither Ruth nor Ken anticipated that they鈥檇 spend a good portion of their lives researching the civil-engineering marvels in pre-Columbian Peru. Ruth puts it this way:

鈥淲e got turned on, and we couldn鈥檛 turn it off.鈥�

Ken Wright and Alfredo Valencia Zegarra are authors of. Ken, Ruth, Zegarra and Gordon McEwan are co-authors of听. Ken is the author of听. Ruth is the author of听.

Clint Talbott听is director of communications and external relations for the College of Arts and Sciences and editor of the听Colorado Arts听&听Sciences Magazine.