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Uros harvesting some Totora on Lake Titicaca nearby the city of Puno.

Uros island

Uros is a group of 42 floating islets located in Lake Titicaca off Puno, Peru as well as to the pre-Inca people who fashioned them. The Uros originally created these artificial islands to escape the Inca, who dominated the mainland at the time; today they are best known as a major tourist destination. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1280x851, 347 KB) Description Uros people harvesting some Totora. This picture was shot by Christophe Meneboeuf in December 2005. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1280x851, 347 KB) Description Uros people harvesting some Totora. This picture was shot by Christophe Meneboeuf in December 2005. ... Binomial name Podocarpus totara G. Benn. ... Lake Titicaca is the highest commercially navigable lake in the world[1], at 3,812 m (12,507 feet) above sea level. ... Mayor Mariano Portugal Population - Total 100 168 Time zone UTC-5 Height 3860 m (12421 ft) Official website: www. ... Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ... Lake Titicaca is the highest commercially navigable lake in the world[1], at 3,812 m (12,507 feet) above sea level. ... Mayor Mariano Portugal Population - Total 100 168 Time zone UTC-5 Height 3860 m (12421 ft) Official website: www. ... For other meanings of Inca, see Inca (disambiguation). ... Before Mexico City, Tenochtitlan was an artificial island of 250,000 (Dr Atl) Dejima, not allowed direct contact with nearby Nagasaki Formoza (Gdynia) The World in Dubai An artificial island is an island that has been formed by human, rather than natural means. ... A tourist boat travels the River Seine in Paris, France Tourism can be defined as the act of travel for the purpose of recreation, and the provision of services for this act. ...

Around 3,000 descendants of the Uros are alive today, although only a few hundred still live on and maintain the islands; most have moved to the mainland. The Uros also bury their dead on the mainland.

The purpose of the island settlements was originally defensive, and if a threat arose they could - with difficulty - be moved. The largest island retains a watchtower almost entirely constructed of reeds.

The Uros traded with the Aymara tribe on the mainland, interbreeding with them and eventually abandoning the Uro language for that of the Aymara. The Aymara are a native ethnic group in the Andes region of South America; about 2. ...

The islets are made of totora reeds, which grow in the lake. The dense roots that the plants develop support the islands. They are anchored with ropes attached to sticks driven into the bottom of the lake. The reeds at the bottoms of the islands rot away fairly quickly, so new reeds are added to the top to compensate. The islands last about 30 years. Binomial name Podocarpus totara G. Benn. ...

The larger islands house about 10 families, while smaller ones, only about 30 meters wide, house only two or three.

Uros island

Local residents fish, and hunt birds and graze their cattle on the islets. They also run crafts stalls aimed at the numerous tourists who land on ten of the islands each year. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 401 Ã— 599 pixelsFull resolution (1198 Ã— 1790 pixel, file size: 558 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) I, the creator of this work, hereby grant the permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 401 Ã— 599 pixelsFull resolution (1198 Ã— 1790 pixel, file size: 558 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) I, the creator of this work, hereby grant the permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation...

Food is cooked with fires placed on piles of stones. To relieve themselves, tiny 'outhouse' islands are near the main islands. The waste is dried in the sun to avoid polluting the water.

External link

The Uros People at GlobalAmity.net
Video presentation by a tour guide

Categories: Articles lacking sources from November 2006 | All articles lacking sources | Indigenous peoples of South America | Artificial islands | Islands of Peru

Results from FactBites:

The Uros of Lake Titicaca - The World & I Online Magazine (2401 words)
	But the last pure Uro had died many years before; the man at the stone mill, part of a mixed Uro-Aymara group, was the last person still able to speak the Uro language in this part of the marshes.
	The bay dried, the totora shriveled, the fish died, the birds flew away, and the Uros were left on dry land without resources.
	The Uros were so abjectly poor and dirty that, to emphasize their scorn and force them to delouse themselves, the Incas only exacted from them a tribute of lice.

Andrys' Peru photos: The Uros - by Miranda France (3195 words)
	The Uros have no electricity or plumbing and must "do their necessities," as they put it, wherever they can: off the side of a boat, behind the house if it is dark, or squatting on a wooden platform in a shallow potato field.
	Uros families are extended in that married couples set up house near their parents, or in-laws, and continue to eat with them and share many tasks.
	Uros men used to fish around the islands at night, but depleted stocks have driven them deeper into the lake, and now they go on three-day missions once a week, leaving their wives in charge of the house, and of the family business.

More results at FactBites »

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