High tech roads of the Incas

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The largest state of the New World - the state of the Incas - existed for just over 300 years. And the imperial period, when the Incas subjugated almost the entire western part of the South American continent, lasted even less - only about 80 years.

But in such a short time, the Incas and the peoples subordinate to them created a huge amount of unique material values. It seems incredible that literally out of nothing, from a scattering of tribes, one of the great empires of antiquity arose, stretching as a narrow ribbon along the eastern coast of South America for 4,000 km - from the shores of the Pacific Ocean to the plateau in the Andes, located at an altitude of 4,000 meters.

The Incas, who at that time did not know either wheels or iron, erected gigantic structures. They created exquisite objects of art, the finest fabrics, and left many gold items. They obtained crops in mountainous heights, where nature is always hostile to the cultivator.

Much of the heritage of the Incas, like themselves, was destroyed by the Spaniards. But the monuments of monumental architecture were not completely destroyed. And the samples of ancient architecture that have survived to this day not only arouse admiration, but also pose a number of practically insoluble questions for researchers.

Inca roads

The second Southern expedition of the conquistadors led by Francisco Pizarro into the depths of the unexplored mainland turned out to be very successful for the Spaniards. After a hike through the wild jungle in search of new prey, at the beginning of 1528, a large stone city appeared before them with beautiful palaces and temples, spacious ports, with richly dressed inhabitants.

That was one of the cities of the Incas - Tumbes. The conquistadors were especially impressed by the wide, stone-paved roads stretching everywhere between well-groomed fields.

The territory occupied by the “sons of the Sun”, as the Incas called themselves, consisted of four parts, which formed the basis for both the administrative division of the state and its official name - Tahuantinsuyu, which meant “four connected sides of the world”.

These four provinces were connected with one another and all at once with the capital - the city of Cuzco - by road systems. The spaces served by the Inca roads were truly immense - about 1 million km2, or combined the territory of present-day Peru, most of Colombia and Ecuador, almost all of Bolivia, northern Chile and northwestern Argentina. Approximately 30 thousand km - this is the total length of the Tahuantinsuyu roads that have survived to this day.

The backbone of the Sons of the Sun road network was formed by two dominant highways. The oldest of them was named Tupa Nyan, or Royal Road. It began in Colombia, crossed the Andes mountain ranges, passing through Cuzco, circled Lake Titicaca at an altitude of almost 4000 m and rushed into the interior of Chile.

In the 16th century historian Pedro Soes de Leono, one can read the following about this road: “I believe that since the beginning of mankind there has not been such an example of grandeur as on this road, which passes through deep valleys, majestic mountains, snowy heights, over waterfalls, over rock debris and along the edge of monstrous abysses."

Another chronicler of that time wrote: "… not one of the most remarkable structures in the world, which ancient authors tell about, was created with such efforts and costs as these roads."

The second main highway of the empire - it was along it that the first detachments of conquistadors moved to Cuzco - stretched along the coastal valleys for a distance of 4000 km. Starting at the northernmost port - the city of Tumbes, it crossed the semi-desert territory of the Costa, went along the coast of the Pacific Ocean, right up to Chile, where it joined the Royal Road.

This highway was named Huayna Kopak-Nyan in honor of the Supreme Inca, who completed its construction shortly before the conquest - the conquest of the Tahuantinsuyu country by the "enlightened Europeans".

The main highway of the Inca empire was Tupa Nyan, which connected the north and south of the empire through the mountains and was considered the longest highway in the world until the beginning of our century. If it were located on the European continent, it would cross it from the Atlantic to Siberia. These two main highways, in turn, were connected with each other by a network of secondary roads, of which only eleven remains have been found.

The most striking thing is that the majestic highways were intended exclusively for pedestrians and pack vehicles. Unique highways were created by the Incas, who did not know the wheels and used to transport relatively small pack animals, llamas, or to carry loads on themselves.

The only means of transport were hand stretchers, to which only the Supreme Inca, members of the royal family, and also some noble persons and officials were entitled. Llamas were intended exclusively for the carriage of goods.

The "zero kilometer" of all ancient Peruvian roads was in Cuzco - "Rome" of the Incas, on its central sacred square. This symbol of the center of the country, called Kapak usno, was a stone slab on which the supreme Inca sat during the most important religious ceremonies.

Deliberate damage to roads and bridges was unconditionally interpreted by the laws of the Incas as an enemy action, a serious crime deserving the most severe punishment. Immutable was the so-called mita - labor service: each subject of the empire had to work 90 days a year on state construction sites, primarily on the construction of roads, streets, bridges. At this time, the state fully took care of food, clothing, and housing for recruited workers, who were often forced to serve their mita away from home.

The impressive success of the Incas in the road business can be explained by the pedantic, downright fanatical performance of all duties and the skillfully debugged state mechanism. Although the roads were built using the most primitive tools, the impeccable organization of the work predetermined the “road miracle” created by the “sons of the sun”. The road workers of Tahuantinsuyu did not stop in front of mountain ranges, viscous swamps, hot deserts, each time finding the optimal technical solution.

At a dizzying height near the gigantic peaks (near Mount Salcantay, the Huayna Copac road runs at an elevation of 5150 m above sea level), steep, protracted slopes are provided. Among the marsh swamps, ancient Peruvian engineers raised a path, building a dam or dam for this.

In the sands of the coastal desert, the Incas lined their roads on both sides with meter-high stone bumpers that protected the road from sand drifts and helped the soldiers' ranks to keep the alignment. The medieval chronicle helps to find out how the Inca road looked in the valleys:

"… on one and the other side of it there was a wall more than good growth, and the whole space of this road was clean and lay under trees planted in a row, and from these trees from many sides their branches full of fruits fell on the road."

People who traveled along the roads of the Tahuantinsuyu empire could rest, eat and sleep at the Tambo road stations, located every 25 km, where there was an inn and warehouses with supplies. The maintenance and supply of Tambo was monitored by residents of nearby Ailyu villages.

The "Sons of the Sun" were also capable of building underground communications. Confirmation of this is the secret passage connecting the capital city with the Muyak-Marka fortress, a kind of military headquarters of the head of state located in the mountains above Cuzco.

This underground winding road consisted of several passages, similar to intricate labyrinths. Such a complex and unusual structure was created in case of an enemy invasion. At the slightest threat, the rulers of Tahuantinsuyu, along with the treasury, freely fell into the impregnable fortress, and the enemies, even if they managed to penetrate the tunnel, with a high probability dispersed, lost their way and wandered hopelessly. The exact route in the labyrinth was the strictest secret, which was owned only by the supreme rulers of Tahuantinsuyu.

Cult roads played a role in the life of the Incas, corresponding to their fanatical piety. Each such ceremonial road had its own architectural originality. Capacocha - the "coronation road" - led to the outskirts of Cusco, to the Chuquicancha mountain.

200 carefully selected children were brought to its top without a single speck or mole on their bodies. The prince touched the clean skin of the kids several times, after which he could rule the empire. Children, drugged with drugs, were sacrificed to the gods.

The secret cult paths of the "sons of the Sun" are curious, for example, a tunnel cut in the rocks near the royal bath (Tampu-Muchai) to the underground caves consecrated by the Jaguar cult. Along the walls of the tunnel, during the sacred ritual, the mummies of the famous Incas were installed, and in the depths, the Supreme Inca himself sat on a two-meter throne carved into a monolith.

The attraction of the Incas to underground roads is explained not only by military-strategic considerations, but also by the beliefs of the ancient Peruvian population. According to legend, the first Inca, the founder of a great dynasty, and his wife went from Bolivian Lake Titicaca to the place of the future Cusco exactly underground.

In the area of this largest lake in Latin America, traces of a highly developed civilization - Tiahuanaco - have been discovered. On the territory of 500 thousand km2, there were about 20 thousand settlements, connected with each other by embankments, diverging from the capital Tiahuanaco through an agricultural district.

Aerial photography has revealed two thousand-year-old roads. The pictures captured stone paths up to 10 km long, probably directed towards the main highway that encircles the lake.

All these are convincing arguments in favor of the hypothesis that the great civilization of the Incas did not arise from scratch and that the Tahuantinsuyu road builders learned from their predecessors, representatives of the Moche, Paracas, Nazca, Tiahuanaco cultures, who, in turn, created an excellent road network.