Carolina Alumni Review - November/December 2010

alumni today

JUPITER IMAGES

COURTESY OF C. RICHARD NISBET III ’ 59

Captured by the Inca
In 1975, C. Richard Nisbet III ’ 59 traveled
to Machu Picchu for the first time. He was
immediately captured by the Inca civilization’s
architecture and the history of the Spanish con-
quest. A decade ago, Nisbet, who also earned a
master’s in dramatic art from UNC in 1960,
sold his audio production studio in Santa
Monica, Calif., established himself in Peru, and
began speaking about and leading tours of the
Incan world.

What attracted him to Machu Picchu:

“This sounds trite and hackneyed,” Nisbet says, “but it is a truly magical place. Not just the ruins, but the place. It’s mystical and spiritual.”

Richard Nisbet III ’ 59 stands at an Incan wall, stacked without mortar so tightly a blade of grass won’t fit between the rocks; above, Machu Picchu Valley.

ONLINE: Richard Nisbet is the author of Cusco Tales, about life in modern Cusco ( www.cuscotales.com). He also has produced a CD-ROM, The Ancient Walls, which has pho- tos dating back to 1975 of the Inca remains and delves into the theories of how the walls were so perfectly constructed ( www.ancientwalls.net). Nisbet’s controversial theo- ries on the connections between Peru and Easter Island resulted in an appearance on the The Travel Channel ( bit.ly/nisbet-travelchannel).

Beyond the Machu
Picchu valley:
“There are a number of extraordinary ruins above
Cusco. There are walls with stones that weigh
up to three tons. They were brought from a
quarry but nobody has any idea how they got
here. It’s baffling. With all of our modern tools
we couldn’t duplicate the walls you see here.”
appears to have been abandoned so suddenly
that “piedras cansadas,” or huge “weary stones,”
litter the approach. There are the “huacas,” stone
shrines carved with incredible precision and
sharp edges, 333 of them. And there are the
walls at Sacsahuaman, made of rocks stacked
without mortar so tightly that neither a blade of
grass nor steel can fit between them.

What else to do on a trip to Peru: There is Ollantaytambo, where gigantic stone monoliths form a shrine or temple project that

Best time to visit: “My favorite time of the year is April,” Nesbit says. “The rains have abated, and the land is still green. But also come in March. You might need a pancho, but in the morning the air starts rising off the Urumba River, and Machu Picchu is shrouded in mist. Then it begins to dissipate, and that is magic.”