The Qhapaq Ñan - bridges

Situated between 500 to 800 metres (1,600 to 2,600 ft) above sea level, this monumental road, which could reach 20 metres (66 ft) in width, connected populated areas, administrative centres, agricultural and mining zones as well as ceremonial centres and sacred spaces.

Various means were used to bridge water courses. There were multiple types of bridges used throughout the road system. Some bridges were made of simple logs, while others were built of stone or floating reeds were used in marshy highlands. Inca rope bridges also provided access across narrow valleys. Rafts were used to cross wide meandering rivers. A bridge across the Apurímac River, west of Cuzco, spanned a distance of 45 metres. Ravines were sometimes crossed by hanging baskets, or oroya, which could span distances of over 50 metres. Bridges were sometimes built in pairs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qptgIcQebLg

One of the difficulties of creating bridges was obtaining wood. Sometimes, the laborers who were making the bridges has to bring the lumber from very far away. In places where they had no timber, bridges would be built from ropes made of straw and grasses. If the bridges were made from rope, they had to be replaced about every two years, while if they were made from wood, they would not have to be replaced for about eight years.

The construction of these bridges was accomplished by the help of many workers. For simple log bridges, the construction was done by placing a series of logs over projecting canes. The construction of stone bridges was more complicated. The stone wall foundations for bridges were built with both rough and dressed stone. The masonry is extremely well fitted, with no evidence of any mortar being used to keep the stones in place.Rather, they used a method of stone working which used simple tools, such as hammerstones, to pound the rocks in a way that the contours of the upper rock matched those of the rock below so that the seams fit perfectly without mortar.

 

Qhapaq Nan/Great Inca Road - the UNESCO 2014 World Heritage Monument

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qptgIcQebLg

The Qhapaq Ñan

(English: Great Inca Road, or Main Andean Road, and meaning "the beautiful road") constituted the principal north-south highway of the Inca Empire traveling 6,000 kilometers (3,700 mi) along the spine of the Andes.  Situated between 50 to 5,000 meters (16 to 16,000 ft.) above sea level, this monumental road, from Pasto, Columbia to Rancagua, Chile, which could reach 20 meters (66 ft.) in width, connected populated areas, administrative centers, agricultural and mining zones as well as ceremonial centers and sacred spaces.

The eastern route ran high in the puna grasslands and mountain valleys from Pasto, Columbia to Mendoza, Argentina. The western route followed the coastal plain not including in coastal deserts where it hugged the foothills. More than twenty routes ran over the western mountains, while others traversed the eastern cordillera in the mountains and lowlands. Some of these roads reach heights of over 5,000 meters (16,000 ft) above sea level. The trails connected the regions of the Inca empire from the northern provincial capital in Quito, Ecuador past the southern provincial capital Inca Mapocho, known today as  Santiago, Chile in the south. The Inca road system linked together about 40,000 kilometers (25,000 mi) of roadway and provided access to over 3,000,000 square kilometers (1,200,000 sq. mi) of territory.

Marcahuamachuco - city of the dead, a fascinating site in the northern Peru

Site Significance
During the Andean Early Middle Horizon
(300–700A.D.) a regional highland state starts
emerging, having as one of its main principal
locations the extended monumental site of
Marcahuamachuco in the northern highlands
of Peru. Archaeological evidence shows
increased articulation of Huamachuco culture
to the neighboring northern (Cajamarca) and
southern highlands (Conchucos and Callejón
de Huaylas), and to some extent to the Pacific
Coast (with the Moche tradition).
During the later Middle (700-900 A.D.) and into
the Intermediate Late Horizons (until around
1200 A.D.), archaeological evidence suggests
that the walls were used for human burials
contributing to the ceremonial functions of the
site. Marcahuamachuco became a prominent
center at the same time that the Wari culture
in southern Peru flourished (400–1100 A.D.).
Abandonment of Marcahuamachuco was
possibly in the 15th century.

Built on top of an isolated plateau 5 kilometers
long and 500 meters wide with a vast view of
its surroundings, Marcahuamachuco contains
several major compounds surrounded by
curved stone walls as high as 12 meters,
with inner galleries, rooms and plazas which
suggest administrative and ceremonial
functions.
There is an urgent need to systematically
retrieve, digitize and organize information
from past publications and graphic material,
a good deal of which is not available in Peru.

Archeological sites on the Grand Inca Road in Peru (part 1)

 

credit: Qhapaq Nan -  Government of Peru

Moray - identified as a Buddhist 'Tricakra ' not only is the fascinating archeological site.....

Moray is a site located near Cusco, Peru at 3500 meters above sea level (11,500 feet). At first glance it seems to be a kind of an amphitheater, formed of 24 circular platforms, and it is an amphiteatr which has the name of 'tricakra' in Sanskrit, the ancient language of India. The site contains unusual pre-Inca ruins, mostly consisting of several enormous terraced circular depressions, the largest of which is about 30 m (98 ft.) deep; their depth and orientation with respect to wind and sun creates a temperature difference of as much as 15 °C (27 °F) between the top and bottom level.

Tricakra refers to the “three cricles” containing the twenty-four rows of seats designed to be used by twenty-four “sacred girls” (ḍākinīs), according to the 9th-centruy Vajraḍākatantra; list of names of such Ḍākinīs and of their internal seats is given as well as their husbands' names who are called by the text heroes (vīra). Such twenty-four rows of seats form three circles (tricakra) i.e.:— ‘the cicle of mind’ (cittacakra), ‘the circle of word’ (vākcakra), ‘the circle of body’ (kāyacakra). The symbol which represents tricakra is called triskelion and it comes from the art represented by the LlolLeo or Aconcagua cultures from the Central Chile. A triskelion is an element of the banner of the Isle of Man,which was known to Romans; an interesting story is connected to it because speaking of the island, Julius Caesar in his Commentaries says:" In the mid sea between Britannia and Hibernia is an island called Mona." According to the wisdomlib.com 'mona' (nt.) means wisdom; self-possession; silence in the Pali language. Moray was thought to be an Incan agricultural 'research center' where experiments of crops at different heights were carried out, and thus creating different types of microclimates, and possibly it was used as such during last 500 + years. It may have served as a model for the calculation of the agricultural production This large temperature difference was possibly used to study the effects of different climatic conditions on crops; it also has a sophisticated irrigation system.

A fascinating version of the Inca's fall under the Pizarro's attack.....

.....made by Michael Wood's and his documentary's crew....

bhttp://youtube/kFvBNWygyfo

Thirty-seven pre-Inca burial sites discovered in the southern Peru

Thirty-seven pre-Inca tombs,
which date back to between 800 and 1445 AD, were accidentally discovered last week while workers were digging trenches as part of the installation of a water system for the Boca del Río settlement, 60 kilometers from the city of Tacna in southern Peru.

Archaeologist Gladys Barreto, who was hired by the Boca del Río consortium to be in charge of executing the construction, said that half of the found tombs contain the remains of children. Also discovered were cerami

cs, symbolic depictions of boats, wooden harpoons and copper hooks.

... Barreto believes that the remains are from the period known as the Late Regional Development and are evidence for the exchange between the cultures on the coast and those in the Andean valleys in the Tacna sierra.

She explained that the progression of this culture happened in parallel with similar developments going on in the Tambo and Arequipa valley, as well as regions in northern Chile.

Jesús Gordillo, archaeologist who studies Tacna cultures, says of the society’s development: “We are talking about advanced cultures, whose principal economic activity would have been fishing.” He stressed that these remains, along with those found further north in Tomoyo, as well as other regions including the Sama valley, Vituña, the beaches Cánepa and Meca, Ite and Punta Picata shown that the Tacna coast was densely populated during that era. (adopted from Living in Peru)