Inca Engineering

The Spanish arrival began the decline of the Inca Empire but it could not wipe out  Inca engineering feats. These significant accomplishments still impress. 

The Inca managed these achievements without iron works, without written language, and (because of the mountainous, irregular terrain) often without the use of wheels. After almost five hundred years, many Inca works remain;  the construction of those who followed has often succumbed to time, elements, and seismic shifts.

The Inca built as much as 25,000 miles of trails, with the main roads leading out of Cusco in four directions. People still hike the Inca trail that leads to Machu Picchu (I took a train). 

They built walls of scrupulously cut, massive stone blocks fitted so precisely that nothing was required to hold them together.  There is no sign of space between the stones, and many of those walls still stand. The Spanish often built over the sturdy Inca walls, and the 'buildovers' didn't always endure.

Remnants of Inca walls, now part of Spanish buildings like those in the Plaza de Armas

Newer construction built around  meticulous Inca stone walls

In one of the most mountainous areas of the world, the Inca created terraces for farming, turning steep slopes into a series of flat step-like surfaces. They developed irrigation systems, using gravel layers under the terrace tops. The crushed rock enables excess water to drain away from crops while assuring water for human consumption. And the stones that support the flat steps retain the heat of the day, providing thermal protection for crops in the cool night air.

Inca terraces supported by gravel at Sacsayhuaman 

Pisac terraces

I saw the evidence of Inca engineering skill in the tour that took me to Machu Picchu.  Only in hindsight, when I was preparing to write about it, did I begin to fully appreciate the Inca Empire's accomplishments and their endurance.

I live in the Boston area.  Here we often joke that we have two seasons: winter and pot-hole repair.  Yet almost five hundred years after the Inca built them, the trail to Machu Picchu is still available to travelers; Inca stone walls support newer construction; the mountainside terraces still stand.

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Next: The Tour Begins

Spanish Conquest of the Inca

The Inca empire continued to grow after Pachacutech's death in 1471, under the leadership of his son Tupac Inca Yupanqui.  Huayna Capac followed him in 1493. While able to maintain the kingdom, he was not able to expand it. He was also unable to pass the empire on in peace.  

After Huayna Capac’s death in 1527, his sons Huascar and Atahualpa split the empire and fought each other for total control.  The former ruled Cusco, and with Cusco came the loyalty of many people. But they were not great warriors.

Atahualpa’s domain, near the city that is now Quito in Ecuador, had followers with significant battle experience. With that came victory for Atahualpa. In 1532. Huáscar and his Cusco domain fell to his brother.  

But Atahualpa’s victory was short-lived. The Europeans had discovered the ‘New World’, bringing smallpox, the common cold and superior fighting skills and weaponry.  Inca slingshots, and arrows were of little use against Pizarro's Spanish warriors in armor. The division between the two Inca brothers was an added advantage that Pizarro could exploit.

Atahualpa, hoping to save his nation, arranged to meet Pizarro in 1532.  The Inca emperor anticipated a meeting, not a battle: he took only a portion of his thousands of warriors with him, and they arrived unarmed.   

Pizarro, however, had planned a battle.  His armed conquistadors killed the unarmed Inca warriors, Pizarro took Atahualpa captive, and the Spanish troops continued toward Cusco. 

Atahualpa’s feared that his just-defeated brother in Cusco might form an alliance with the Spanish, so from captivity, he was able to order Huascar’s assassination. Then the prisoner-king offered to pay Pizarro for his freedom with the gold and silver from Cusco’s ‘Gold Courtyard’ --the Coricancha.  Pizarro chose to take the ransom and kill the captive in 1533. 

Pizarro then appointed Manco Inca to serve as his puppet ruler.  Manco was not a very good puppet. He had supported Huascar in opposing Atahualpa, and he quickly became disenchanted with Spanish rule. In 1536, Manco organized an attack on the Spanish in Cusco. Initially he fought from the fortress of Sacsayhuaman, but the Spanish captured it. Manco retreated to Ollantaytambo, and then into the jungle.   

Capturing Sacsayhuaman enabled the Spanish to retain control of Cusco. Manco continued his attempts to drive out the Spanish and regain the empire, but ultimately was killed in 1544. The Spanish domination expanded, bringing an end to the Inca Empire.

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Next: Inca Engineering

A Little Legend and a Little More Inca History

In spite of the absence of written records prior to Pizarro’s arrival, we do know some Inca history.  “Inca” was originally the king’s title, but it came to refer to the people. The Inca settled in the area near Cusco about 1200 AD. 

Legend has it that Inti, the sun god, sent Manco Capac and his wife to establish an empire that would bring happiness to the world.

History has it that the Inca formed from two earlier societies, the Wari and the Tiwanaku.  Manco Capac established Cusco in the area that linked those two domains.

Seven Incas reigned after Manco Capac, but it wasn’t until the 1400’s that one left a significant mark.  Ironically, that leader was not originally meant to rule the Inca.

Viracocha was the eighth ruler of the Inca in 1410. During his reign, the Chancas, a tribe about 90 miles west of Cusco, threatened the city.  So the leader of the empire, Viracocha and his heir-apparent ….  fled.

However, Viracocha Inca’s younger son did not flee. He assembled forces that defeated the Chancas. He then chose the name ‘Pachacutec’ (‘Cataclysm’) and took on the mantle of leadership.

During Pachacutec’s reign from 1438 to 1471 CE, he began the expansion of the Inca Empire. Next to Cusco, he started the construction of a fortress of massive stones, Sacsayhuaman.

Part of the remains of Sacsayhuaman with a view of Cusco in the background

Pachacutec also built the Coricancha, Cusco’s temple to the sun god Inti, which was lined with gold -- literally.  

 This large section of Inca gold, now on view in Cusco, was once part of the Coricancha, the temple that Pachacutec built to the sun god Inti.

More important, Pachacutec conquered most of the central Andes.  According to information from Natural Habitat,  he is comparable to great warriors like Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan. 

Pachacutec expanded the Inca Empire so it stretched along the western edge of the continent from north to south, including parts of what is now Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia.  The Inca Empire had a population of well over nine million people.   

He planned the city of Cusco, developing it in a puma shape. Under his rule, the Inca also developed Pisac, Ollantaytambo, and Machu Picchu, places that I will visit in upcoming posts.

After Pachacutech died in 1471, his son Tupac Inca Yupanqui continued the empire’s expansion until his death in 1493. 

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Next: Spanish Conquest

Welcome to the Inca Empire

(Apologies to my regular readers: a number of things have interfered with my regular posting, but I think with the start of September I am back on track.) 

Time to return to South America.

 

We’re on our way to Cusco, Peru, where we’ll continue the adventure that started in the Galapagos and will end in Machu Picchu. 

A Note About Tours and Tour Companies

The week before our trip left, I called Natural Habitat Adventures and asked how many people from the Galapagos tour had chosen the ‘add-on’ adventure of a visit to Machu Picchu.

“Just two of you,” was the reply.  We are about to embark on a semiprivate tour.

Important information about tours and tour companies: just because you sign up for a tour, doesn’t mean your tour will be going. There are companies who, if not enough people sign up, cancel the tour and refund your money.  It happened to me once. After that disappointment, I have been careful to choose companies whose tours go as scheduled, regardless of the number of people going.

Natural Habitat Adventures does NOT cancel tours.  If you choose a tour with Natural Habitat Adventures, the tour will take place. You may want to make sure that any tour company you consider has that same policy.

So we’re off for a semiprivate guided tour of Cusco, the Sacred Valley, and Machu Picchu.

A Little About the Inca

I began writing about the trip using my notes, photos, and extensive information that Natural Habitat provided. It struck me the Inca Empire was far more significant than I had realized while I was there. To do justice to the Inca, the first posts offer a brief introductory history.

We begin our visit in Cusco, a busy city that was once the center of the Inca Empire. The Plaza de Armas was the Huacaypata, or Warrior Square. 

 

The Cathedral in the Plaza de Armas, Cusco

Pizarro and his conquistadors arrived in 1533.  That marked the start of the decline of the Inca empire and the beginning of the area’s written history.

Wait… there was no written Inca history?

The Inca did not have a written language*.  Their spoken language was Quechua, which you can still hear today. Their oral history was passed from generation to generation with the help of art and artifacts, and with the help of quipu (or kipu), a system of knotted strings. We haven’t fully interpreted quipu, but they do tell a story.

Studies suggest the knots represent numbers; the locations and number of knots have unique values; and the string color also has meaning. There is evidence that Inca had officials who tracked the quipu information for the king.

Here are a few examples of quipu:

 You can find more information at these sites:

https://www.livescience.com/41346-the-incas-history-of-andean-empire.html

https://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/HistTopics/Inca_mathematics.html  

https:khipukamayuq.fas.harvard.edu

So we're going to be visiting the area of a once-giant empire that spanned the mountains of South America, had no written language, and yet left an amazing legacy.

 

*  Some believe that the civilization was so advanced, it must have had a system of writing, but we just haven’t discovered it yet.

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Next: A Little Legend and a Little More Inca History