These days, you can use the internet to do some pretty amazing stuff. You can watch from a huge selection of movies or read one of millions of books. You can video-chat with someone on the other side of the world.
Or, if you are retired University of Missouri professor Robert Benfer, you can discover the massive structures left behind by an ancient Peruvian civilization using Google Earth. More images here.
Robert Benfer gained international recognition in 2006, when he discovered an ancient observatory in Peru. He's spent the past few years following up on that discovery. In 2010, a visit to the giant animal effigy mounds in Wisconsin inspired him to look for similar structures in Peru. By first looking on Google Earth, and then confirming by visiting the sites, Benfer discovered animal effigy mounds in coastal valleys of Peru which equaled those in North America. Benfer believes some of the Peruvians mounds may be as many as 5000 years old.
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