THE ROAD AND THE TERRAIN A
monumental geography that impresses itself upon the human psyche, the Andes communicate a power of presence that sacralizes
landscapes. Thus a large number of mountain- tops are by long tradition identified with apus, or mountain deities of varied personalities and spiritual powers. So venerated was the land- scape that even human life was offered to its magnificence. A qhapaq hucha, the ceremonial sacrifice of an unblemished child, was made in what is now central Chile, likely an offering atop the highest peaks to appreciate and ensure continued success in expanding the empire. Over some of the harshest terrain on earth,
the Inka developed a confederated society that grew with every generation, in time encompassing some 100 provinces and even more nations – lured and sustained by continuous advances in the organization and engineering of agriculture, road and building construction and military science. The territorial extensions of Inka polity reach
Q’eswachaka suspension bridge. Apurímac River, Canas Province, Peru, 2014.
the four corners of the Andean world. The Inka called their territory Tawantinsuyu, or the “four- cornered empire.” In each of the four directions, roads traversed a diverse world of contesting regions and ethnicities. At selected points throughout the Inka territory, the roads converge on various ushnus, sacred altars of the sun where offerings were made at religious gatherings. The roads to each of the four suyus, or
provinces – Chinchaysuyu, Collasuyu, Contisuyu and Antisuyu, each with its specific bounties and justifications for Inka expansion – carried the economic, religious, military and political traffic of millions of people. All these activities were controlled, recorded and documented with an ingenious and mysterious mnemonic device of knotted strings called a khipu. (See The Inka Counting System: Coloured Strings and Knots, page 51.)
The Inka Road is a network, “an articulated
circuit,” writes scholar Victoria Castro, “that leaves no point of the territory without access to the Qhapaq Nan.” Inka planning connected thousands of local communities via their highly efficient system of roads, bridges, tampus (way stations), colcas (state warehouses) and chaskis (runner messengers). Exhibiting a keen and cre- ative sense of engineering, the Inka created works that continue to amaze for their monumentality and durability. Cusco still commands great respect for its cen-
trality to the Inka, and the marked entrances to the city facing the four corners of the empire still garner ceremonial observance from present-day Peruvians. Cusco was chawpi, fulcrum of energy, but in its time, it was not the only destination. Among noted destinations of the Andean world, Machu Picchu stands out as a 500-year-old architectural wonder that has survived the pres- sures of nature, firmly defended by the principles and feats of Inka engineering. Each road and direction of the Inka
suyus takes a traveler to marvels of monumental construction, and each holds out the promise of needed and coveted natural treasures: in Antisuyu, gold, precious woods, feathers, medi- cines; in Collasuyu, precious metals and salt; in Contisuyu, ocean products and sacred sands. One of the most compelling engineering treasures of the four regions can still be seen in Chinchaysuyu, to the north: the famous Inka hanging bridge over the Apurimac River.
Known as the Q’eswachaka, the rope bridge is still in use five centuries later, reconstructed ceremonially by local Native communities each year. Massive cords twisted from local ichhu grasses are hung by masters (with no margin for failure) across a steep gorge in the mountains – a seemingly simple, yet deeply complex, technol- ogy that was first skillfully deployed by the Inka ancestors. – Jose Barreiro
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 29
PHOTO BY DOUG MCMAINS
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