How the Incas Engineered a Road Across Extreme Terrain By Smithsonian.com

Transcription

1 How the Incas Engineered a Road Across Extreme Terrain By Smithsonian.com Every June, after the rainy season ends in the highlands of southern Peru, the residents of four villages near Huinchiri, at more than 12,000 feet in altitude, come together for a three-day festival. Men, women and children have already spent days in busy preparation: They have gathered bushels of long grasses, which they have then soaked, pounded and dried in the sun. These tough fibers have been twisted and braided into narrow cords. The cords have been woven together to form six heavy cables. Each cable is the circumference of a man s thigh and more than 100 feet long. Dozens of men place the long cables over their shoulders and carry them single file to the edge of a deep, rocky canyon. About 100 feet below flows the Apurímac River. Page 1

2 Building And Rebuilding A Living Link And so it has gone for centuries. The indigenous Quechua communities, descendants of the ancient Inca, have been building and rebuilding this twisted-rope bridge, or Q eswachaka, in the same way for more than 500 years. It s a living link to an ancient past a bridge not only capable of bearing some 5,000 pounds but also empowered by profound spiritual strength. To the Quechua, the bridge is linked to Earth and water, both of which are connected to the heavens. Water comes from the sky and the Earth distributes it. In their incantations, the elders ask the Earth to support the bridge and the water to accept its presence. The rope itself is endowed with powerful symbolism: Legend has it that in ancient times the supreme Inca ruler sent out ropes from his capital in Cusco, and they united all under a peaceful and prosperous reign. The bridge, says Ramiro Matos, physically and spiritually embraces one side and the other side. A Peruvian of Quechua descent, Matos is an expert on the famed Inca Road, of which this Q eswachaka makes up just one tiny part. He has been studying it since the 1980s and has published several books on the Inca. The Great Road And Its Mysteries Numerous museum exhibitions have highlighted Inca wonders, but none to date have focused so ambitiously on the road itself, perhaps because of its political, logistical and conceptual complexities. Inca gold is easy to describe and display, Matos explains. Such dazzling objects scarcely need an introduction. But this is a road, he continues. The road is the protagonist, the actor. How do we show that? This roadway has a spirit, Matos says. Walter Alvarez, a Bolivian descendant of the Inca, told Matos that the road is alive. It protects us, he said. Passing along the way of our ancestors, we are protected by the Pachamama [Mother Earth]. The Pachamama is life energy and wisdom. To this day, Alvarez said, traditional healers make a point of traveling the Page 2

3 road on foot. To ride in a vehicle would be inconceivable the road itself is the source from which the healers absorb their special energy. Walking the Inca Trail, we are never tired, Quechua leader Pedro Sulca explained to Matos in The llamas and donkeys that walk the Inca Trail never get tired because the old path has the blessings of the Inca. Binding The Empire The road has other powers too. The Inca Trail shortens distances, said Porfirio Ninahuaman, a Quechua from the city of Cerro de Pasco in Peru. The modern road makes them farther. Matos knows of Bolivian healers who have hiked the road from Bolivia to Peru s central highlands, a distance of some 500 miles, in less than two weeks. They say our Inka [the Inca king] had the power of the sun, who commanded on Earth and all obeyed people, animals, even rocks and stones, said Nazario Turpo, a Quechua living near Cusco, Peru. One day, the Inka, with his golden sling, ordered rocks and pebbles to leave his place, to move in an orderly manner, form walls, and open the great road for the Inca Empire So was created the Capac Ñan. This vast ancient highway known as Capac Ñan, or Royal Road was the glue that held together the enormous Inca Empire. The road was paved with blocks of stone, reinforced with retaining walls, dug into rock faces and linked by as many as 200 rope bridges. The Inca engineers cut through some of the most varied and extreme terrain in the world, spanning rain forests, deserts and high mountains. The 25,000-Mile-Long And Winding Inca Road At its early 16th-century peak, the Inca Empire was the largest empire of its day. It included between 8 million and 12 million people and extended from modern-day Colombia down to Chile and Argentina cutting through Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru. The Capac Ñan linked Cuzco, the Inca capital, with the rest of the empire, its main route and branches radiating in all directions. The largest empire in its day, it also ranked as among the most Page 3

4 sophisticated, incorporating a huge array of chiefdoms, kingdoms and tribes. Unlike other great empires, it used no currency. A powerful army and extraordinary central administration managed business and ensured that everyone worked in agriculture until the harvest, and doing public works thereafter. Labor, including work on this great road, was the tax Inca subjects paid. Inca engineers planned and built the road without benefit of wheeled devices, draft animals, a written language, or even metal tools. A previous map of the Inca Road, completed in 1984, shows the road running for 14,378 miles. However, a new map, created by Matos and an international group of scholars, revealed that it actually stretched for nearly 25,000 miles. Partly as a result of this work, the Inca Road became a UNESCO World Heritage site in Embracing Andean Roots In Washington, D.C., where Matos has lived and worked since 1996, he still embraces his Andean roots. He enjoys participating in festivals and other activities with fellow Quechua immigrants. Speaking Quechua is part of my legacy, he says. Among the 6 million Quechua speakers in South America today, many of the old ways remain. People live in the same houses, the same places, and use the same roads as in the Inca time, Matos says. They re planting the same plants. Their beliefs are still strong. Quechua Pride And Perserverance Nowadays, about 500 communities in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and northwestern Argentina rely on what remains of the road, much of it overgrown or destroyed by earthquakes or landslides. In isolated areas, it remains the only road. While locals use it to go to market, it has always been more than just a means of transport. For them, Matos says, it s Mother Earth, a companion. And so they make offerings at sacred sites along the route, praying for safe travels and a speedy return, just as they have done for hundreds of years. Page 4

5 The Quechua have persevered over the years in spite of severe political and environmental threats. Nowadays the threats to indigenous people come from water scarcity and the depletion of natural resources, including copper, lead and gold. To preserve their traditional culture, [the Quechua] need to preserve the environment, especially from water and mining threats, Matos emphasizes. Education needs to be improved too. There are schools everywhere, he says, but there is no strong pre-hispanic history. Native communities are not strongly connected with their past. In Cusco, it s still strong. In other places, no. Still, he says, there is greater pride than ever among the Quechua, partly the benefit of vigorous tourism. Now people are feeling proud to speak Quechua, Matos says. People are feeling very proud to be descendants of the Inca. Page 5