When one wishes to visit the legendary places of inkas, he can find the most scenic places to go and find out how these people created a civilization of the woods.

History

According to archaeologists, the Incas have inherited a lot from previous civilizations and from the neighboring nations. In the history there were a number of civilizations of the Incas are found in South America. These were

• The Moche: they were known for colored ceramics and irrigation systems.
• Wari: this Aymara speaking state was the model of the Inka Empire, with a different language.
• Chimu living in the city of Chan Chan, they were famous for pottery and architecture.
• Nazca : they were known for creation of Nazca lines, as well as its system of underground water pipes and pottery.
• Pukin: known for the civilization of Tiwanaku, they were located to the east of Lake Titicaca.
• Chachapoyas: they were also called “Machu Picchu of the North”. They have terrifying fortress called “Kuelap” and were known as the Warriors of the clouds.

Expansion of Inkas

After creating the territory of their country, they keep on expanding constantly. Inka Yauar Uakak had created regular army for the empire and Inka Pachacuti was flourished in his era. before him the Inkas were just one of many Indian tribes in the typical town Cuzco. Most of the land controlled by the Inkas, were conquered by Pachacuti and his son Tupac Inka Yupanqui. The rulers of Huascar and Atahualpa were sons of Huayna Capac. They began a war to conquer the rest of empire and with the help of the Spaniards, Atahualpa won the war.

The Inkas conquered their neighboring tribes by using its strong and numerous armies and by attracting the elite conquer regions. Before taking military action three of the proposed conquers the region voluntarily join the empire. All the conquered tribes were forced to learn the language Quechua, follow their customs and administered their own laws. For Inkas, local handicrafts and costumes were very important so they aimed to preserve the origin and social status of Tawantinsuyu.

Inka architecture

The Inkas has vast architectural back ground.  They mainly focused on precision and functionality in their architecture. Their basic work is with the use of stones. The stones are fitted with great precision that is not found in human history. They focus more on functionality in their architects then decoration. The combination of trapezoid shaped stones and their constructions gave itself a beautiful essence.

Construction Methods

The Inkas built work is all with the medium of stone. The rocks are limestone or granite which ever nearly available. The rocks were brought to the Ollantaytambo village from one side of the Urubamba Valley.  At Urubamba Valley big blocks were broken, trimmed, shaped and then brought to the complex across the Urubamba River. The trapezoid shapes are dominant in Inka architecture which is gracefully proportioned. They look beautifully decorated as well as functionally they serve well.

Stone Cutting

The rectangular block which has to be fitted has a bottom, top, and two ends. They must be in the shape so that they fit to their bedrock seat and the neighboring stones in the wall. Initially the top and bottom sides are cut and shaped for any particular fit. After that the seat and front in the basic stones must be craved to fit this block. For this purpose the block was hanged over the stone on which it is to be seated. If the stone is very heavy then it was a big problem. But this problem was managed by logs, supporting up by leaning in diagonally from the front and back sides. With the help of a scribing device, the hanged block is outlined according to stone below. To achieve accuracy the angular relationship between the upper stone and the lower stones must remain constant; this could be done through the use of a plumb bob strung through the triangular scribe.

The way, Inka cut stone without using any metal tools is still unknown. But this is sure that they cut and shaped the stones with the help of stone tools. The limited use of bronze or copper tools might be possible for cutting the hard rock. First the holes were made in the stone in the line from which was supposed to be broken. Those holes would probably be made through metal tool. It is an assumption that to split the rock the Inkas used the method of placing wooden wedges placed in cracks, then soaked in water, until the expanding wood split the rock. Mostly the stones were easily detached from the bedrock. After detached from the bedrock, stones could be trimmed by striking with stone hammer. At stonework of Inkas those marks are visible.

The method of drill holes in rock is also found in Inka architecture, from the walls in Machu Picchu. How they did that is not known. It is possible that the holes were drilled using some rod shaped stone.

Twelve-cornered stone

The stone cutting of Inkas into rectangular and trapezoid blocks, its drilling holes through hard rock and their fitting combination is no doubt nonparallel to any human work and the reason for its fame. The magnificence and brilliance of Inka stone cutting is demonstrated more by the presence of the famous “twelve-cornered stone”.  It showed the ability of Inkas stone cutting in to a unique shapes and strength of fitting stones together. Such an incredible work is also found in a wall of the palace of the Inka Roca.

Scribing and Coping Technique

Scribing and coping method was adopted by the Inkas to fix the stones.  Stones are cut into different shapes like wonderful jigsaw-puzzle or dove-tail. Such logs and their corners are carefully fitted together with little or no gap between the cut logs.

The scribing and coping might be the only technique which can be thought as a sensible explanation to the ambiguity of the Inka stone shaping technique. All the stone shaping processes require a lot of work and great work force. That is the reason where only the load-bearing surfaces and vertical joints which are visible are tightly fitted. Any leftover gap between the stone is being filled with residue.

Inka walls

The Inkas gave great importance to their very finest stonework found in their most important buildings, their temples. Inwards sloping is employed in the construction of temple walls. Finely cut ashlars were built in progressive pattern that get thinner upwards. Read the full story

Keshwa Chaca is the old bridge, constructed since Inka times. The bridge of Keshwa Chaca crosses over the river Apurimac and connects the Vilcanota valley with hairpin curves. Every year the bridge is re-built by during a rebuilding festival. This is organized by the people of comunidad campesina living in Huinchiri.

Basic Structure

It is a suspension bridge over the valley of the upper Río Apurimac. This bridge is made of ropes which are hand woven grass. As the bridge is handmade and it has seen the weather of whole year,, so it is very risky to cross. For the purpose of transportation there is also another steel girder bridge nearby. Thus it is not essential that this rope bridge be rebuilt for any present-day transportation purposes. Still the Quechua/Machu Piccho people maintain to rebuild the bridge once a year, as ever. It is their tradition, and by doing this they admire their ancestors. They perform their festival at this bridge.

The Old Bridge

The land sliding has destroyed parts of the Inka road and the bridge is now very not easy to trace. It can be, now located over the Apurimac river near today’s bridge at Huinchiri. The bridge on the Inka highway between Cuzco and Lima, crossing the Apurimac near the base of awesome canyons is the most famed of all the Inka bridges. It is several hundreds of meters down near the Apurimac river. The bridge was used by the Inka armies and the attacking Spanish Conquistadors too. After the take-over this bridge was used for about 450 years and rebuilt once or twice per year. Later another wire rope suspension bridge was built at a different location. With the passage of time it was forgotten by in the 1890s.

Discovery of Old Bridge

This bridge was later approached by Victor Von Hagen in the beginning of 1950s. It was difficult to reach the bridge from the Cuzco side because the landslides have destroyed major parts of the Inka road on that side. Still it can be reached from the southwest side (Lima side) of the Río Apurimac valley. But it still requires a local guide to locate it.                                                     There are many small tunnels one after the other on the trail of old Inka road.  These tunnels are so small that they look like window and skylights. There is no other road near these tunnels so it is believed to be built by the Inkas. But Inka did not have horses and mules so these might not used by them. There are holes in the tunnel walls made by drill for enlarging the tunnel which was probably done after Inkas during the colonial times for the passage. Landslides have destroyed many parts of Inka road. But its remains can be seen from the track just below the lower end of the tunnel. A t the same point it is crossed by bridge and after that point it is destroyed by landslides. It is very difficult to climb the cliff to reach to the road. Due to landslides, while crossing, there are chances to fall into the river. It is only possible to reach there by holding the canyon walls.

Going ahead of the slide there is narrow inner ravine called pongo. It is the place of old bridge for hundreds of years. From here the old road continues. At the other edge of bridge (the Cuzco side) the bridge is mounted a place called estribo by the Spaniards.  It is natural rock projection. If we look from the Lima wall edge of the bridge we can look straight across to the remains of the Cuzco edge of bridge. Now it seems like the estribo is just a few loose grey rocks at the other edge of bridgehead.

Tourist Attraction

It is very interesting to visit the festival. Many adventure groups come to visit the festival. Most of the groups are local. A local adventure group named Rutahsa Adventures group come here each year. They fetch many things for the village children every time when they come. These things include school supplies, toothbrushes and toothpaste, and children’s clothing as a “mini-aid program”. All these things are divided into the children of four communities who participated in the construction process.

The Festival

At the time of rebuilding the bridge a huge festival is held. It is arranged by the people living in Huinchiri. There are the four groups of official of the Huinchiri who are responsible for rebuilding the bridge. The main festival is held for three days.

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