Ever since I first played the videogame Sonic Adventure I’ve been interested in the Maya civilisation. If you think that’s quite a leap from hedgehogs to ancient tribes, then to give you a quick SEGA crash course the videogame introduced back story to the character of Knuckles The Echidna. Introducing his ancestors, the ancient Knuckles tribe of echidnas for whom he was named. Those ancestors are heavily based on the Mayan people, specifically the architecture of their ancient city. The game also introduced a character called Tikal, named after a Mayan citadel (now National Park) in what is now northern Guatemala.
On investigating that I stumbled across information about the ancient city of Machu Picchu which, in the information I read, was mistakenly called a Mayan location. It is, of course not, but is in fact a 15th century Inca stronghold. Despite being an extremely advanced civilisation, the Mayan empire had essentially collapsed for unknown reasons 500 years before the Inca empire was even founded.
Despite not being what I was looking for you can’t help but take notice.
You have probably seen pictures of Machu Picchu. The ruins of an ancient city, high on a mountain top in the Andes, that seems swim or dance in the very clouds. It is a wondrous, spellbinding sight – and one we’ve actually covered once before, though not on Life In 360°. Almost a year ago Jaunt VR launched on its app Machu Picchu, The Lost City of the Inca, Today however we’re taking in a more personal view; that of vlogger and traveller Louis Cole better known on YouTube as FunForLouis. He us for a walk along the pathways, chats to fellow travellers and gives his thoughts on what he sees in this video from just after Christmas Day last year.
VRFocus will be back, with another 360 degree video selection for you on Wednesday morning. We’ll see you then.