INKA ROAD
Panorama of Inka Road landscapes, ( Lto R) Andean peaks, highland valley, Amazon headwaters,mountain glacier and terraced hillside.
was integrated under a single political system, an empirical feat of governance unequaled in that vast region, before or since. Pachacutic and his line of three genera-
tions – over one incredibly ambitious century starting around 1438 AD – organized and built the major urban centers, terraces, canals and aqueducts, storehouses and roads, built or rebuilt citadels such as Macchu Picchu, Ollantaytambo, Huanuco Pampa, Cajamarca, Tomebamba, Wakarapukara (the list is long). They deployed the most skilled diplomacy, directed the most strategic wars (excelling at provisioning troops), built countless bridges and roads, training and commanding ad- ministrators and engineers, huge numbers of
A woman weaving in Cusco, 2014.
skilled artisans, agriculturalists, construction workers. The three generations of Pachacu- tic’s line expanded to the four directions, the “four quarters,” or suyos, of the Tawantinsuyu, developing highly complex systems in archi- tecture, agriculture and social organization. Wrote the earliest Spanish chronicler,
Pedro Cieza de Leon: “The Christians were amazed to see such great reason in the In- dians, the vast amounts of provisions of all kinds that they had, and the extent of their highways and how clean and filled with lodg- ings they were.” Pachacutic took his conquests first west
and then far to the north and south. He fully consolidated Inka hold of the sacred Urubam-
ba River valley, the agricultural bread basket. Countless caciques fell to his campaigns as he punished all weak and treacherous neigh- bors. He saw and took the ancient complex of Tiwanaku, subjugating “all the towns and nations surrounding the great Lake Titicaca,” and sent expeditions north to the region of present-day Cuenca, Ecuador. Colonial-era chronicler, Father Bernabe Cobo records that so quick and efficient were his bridge-building engineers that at least once their wondrous constructions impressed resisting nations into surrender. Vast herds of llama and alpaca, ma- jor agricultural valleys, rich mining and salt deposits, and other economic rewards raised the power of the Inka sovereign.
Continued on page 30
28 AMERICAN INDIAN SUMMER 2015
PHOTO BY DOUG MCMAINS
PHOTOS BY DOUG MCMAINS
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