Hello
Yes, we have finally made it to Machu Picchu. It is amazing, this Inca city on top of a mountain surrounded by large green craggy peaks, overlooking valleys. Today there were clouds floating in and out, giving it a real mystical quality. Everytime you look at a building or a terrace, you wonder, how did they do this. The city was built from approx 1420 to 1530, it was never finished, no one knows why. Fortunately, the Spanish never found it or they would have destroyed it, although I don't know how they could have attacked it. It sits on top of a mountain, so it would have been easy to defend. They have found 9 Inca trails leading up to it as it was a trading centre. The city is divided into agriculture, living areas and sacred areas.
There are many terraces on the east side of the mountain they used for farming potatoes, corn, beans. The living areas were divided into the upper and lower areas. The scholars and more important Incas lived in the upper area and the workers, like farmers lived in the lower area. The Inca chose their important people based on ability and merit, not social status, if you were a chief's son and not too bright, you were a worker. The average Inca family had 8 to 10 people which lived in the house, the scholars and priests had their own living quarters.
The engineering is amazing, they created an aqueduct which carried water at the rate so it continue running constantly (to prevent contamination) but at a rate to provide water for drinking and bathing for the 1000 inhabitants of the city. They had underground aqueducts which carried the excess and rainwater away, so it did not cause erosion or undermine the city. The buildings are made of stone found on top of the mountain, they used the natural fracture lines to fracture the granite and polished it. The construction is amazing. The important buildings are made of sculpted stones which are dry fitted perfectly. You still cannot get a knifeblade between the stones. They sloped the walls and built foundations to give the buildings strength during earthquakes. They also filled in around the foundations with gravel and sand to help absorb the shocks. They used the trapazoid shape and alcoves to help provide strength and flexibility to the walls. The Inca buildings survived the the 1950's earthquake in Cuzco when all the other buildings crumbled. During the floods 2 years ago, modern buildings were washed away while the Inca terraces stood strong.
They also built numerous terraces around the city of Machu Picchu for structural reasons to support and protect the city. It is still standing after 500 years, it really says something about their building skills and technology. They were also into astronomy, their calender is more accurate than ours, they don't need leap years. They built temples so the sun would enter certain windows during the June and December solstices as these were important to them. They helped them decided when to plant their crops.
In its heyday, the Inca empire included Peru, Boliva, Equador, Chile and Argentina. All connected with roads and trails, 45000 km, they have found over half of them now.
The Inca were tall, about 5 ft 5 inches, they towered over the Spanish when they came. The Inca were well nourished and knew the importance of spreading out the gene pool. They sent all the males who were becoming men to other villages or cities, to stop interbreeding. Women were responsible for keeping and passing on the history and important facts. The Spanish did not like that and labelled them witches. So much for progress.
I hope you found this interesting, I could bore you all day with facts about this amazing civilization and the incredible pre Inca civilizations in this area, it really is amazing what these cultures built and figured out. Makes current science and technology look pretty lame at times.
Kim and Dan
No comments:
Post a Comment