Inca wall sacrificed for hotel

A Frenchman tore down part of an ancient Inca wall to build a hotel in the Peruvian city of Cusco, capital of the Inca empire, that he ironically wanted to call The Archaeologist.

El Comercio newspaper said yesterday that Joel Raymund was planning to slap up a concrete wall in place of the large, finely cut bricks that had been there since before the 16th-century Spanish conquest.

Peruvian authorities have halted construction of the hotel.

The newspaper said Raymund apologised, but could face charges.

The Inca dynasty held sway over a swathe of Latin America from Colombia to Chile for more than three centuries until the Spanish conquest.