Climbing In The Andes—IV EXPLORING THE RUINS OF INCA’S EMPIRE

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30531, 28 August 1964, Page 8

Climbing In The Andes — IV EXPLORING THE RUINS OF INCA’S EMPIRE

ISoeciallu written tor the New Zealand Preet

HAL JACOBS,

o member

(opec.auu Ande3 Expedition, 1964.)

Mountains were the main attraction to me on my journey to Bolivia and Peru but I was soon to learn that the Andes are not the only fascinating thing in these countries.

I had always thought history a dull subject but was now in the right country to learn otherwise. The history of the Inca Empire still offers a challenge to archaeologist and historian alike. We flew into Inca country from Lima. The flight to Cusco was in an unpressurised DCS and. as the plane flew at 21.000 ft, oxygen was available at each seat, throiigh a tube that could be applied to mouth or nose. Ancient Capital Cusco, the ancient capital of the Incas, was in the days of the Spanish conquest of Peru the largest city in

America. On a hill overlooking the city is an old fortress, Sacahuanam. At the altitude of 11,000 ft the walk from the town set us breathing hard. The visit was worth the climb. 1 was so impressed with the stonework and labour that must have gone into it that I read more about its building. The northern wall of the fortress is perhaps the most extraordinary structure built by ancient man in the western hemisphere. The smaller blocks weigh approximately 15 tons. A few of the largest of these granite blocks are estimated to weight 300 tons. They are fitted accurately together. No cement was used, but the joints are too tight to take even a razor blade. The blocks were brought from quarries more than a mile away, and were fashioned by people using stone tools. They were moved to the site by levers. The Incas had no iron or steel, but they had bronze crowbars of great strength. Similar walls down in the city, made of smaller stones, were used by the Spanish as foundations for. buildings. When the newer structures collapsed during severe earthquakes, the Inca walls remained firm. We returned reluctantly to the city with its narrow cobbled streets, quaint, pinktiled roofs and colourful Indians. The Indians speak Quechua, a language first introduced by the Incas and now the name given to the Indians themselves.

Our appetites were whetted and we wished to explore more ruins and find out more about this ancient empire. The “autovagon” took us deep into the Mountains to Machu Picchu, the last seat and stronghold. of the Inca. When the Spanish Conquistadors invaded Peru in 1533, the Inca retired to this retreat and, for about 40 years, with the aid of nature’s rugged barriers, prevented the Spanish from penetrating the mountain fastness. They were finally wiped out in 1572. Machu Picchu. was a lost city for 300 years until discovered in 1911 by the late Hiram Bingham. Guarded by sheer gorges and set in rugged mountainous country to our Fiordland, it Is a fine example of city planning—a complex of terraces, gabled houses, temples, sacred palaces and residential compounds. Machu Picchu is a “must” for all tourists to Peru, where clearing of the jungle is still revealing more extensive ruins. It seems strange for a civilisation, without the written word, of the use of the

wheel, to be so advanced in culture, agriculture and metallurgy. The Inca gave the world the common potato and such useful drugs as quinine and cocaine. In the making of pottery and the weaving of fine textiles, they equalled the best that ancient civilisation could offer. Once the word Inca, which means king of emperor, was given only to the leader of this remarkable race which existed for an unknown number of years in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and northern parts of Chile and Argentina. Today, the name Inca covers the entire civilisation. Although the wheel was not known and all goods were transported either by llama or man’s back, thousands of miles of road were built, Along these roads raced relays of runners, carrying messages in the form of coloured cords, knotted in such a way as to be understood by the receiver. At suitable stations, shelters were built where runners were relieved. This was when the much practised custom of today, chewing coca, orginated. By chewing leaves of the coca tree and adding a little lime, one becomes partly insensible to fatigue, hunger and cold. The Inca allowed this to be used only by his marathon post runners, while today it is a custom practised throughout the country, especially by those doing heavy manual labour or living in a harsh climate at heights of up to 14,000 ft. The snow and ice level comes down to 15,000 ft and provides the reservoir for the miles of irrigation channels without which very little would grow in the dry air of the valleys. These channels were built to follow the contours of the hills and the Inca workmen must have had a very true eye, because without engineering or surveying equipment he managed to run them in a perfectly straight line for as much as 20 miles. When studying some aerial photos, we mistook these channels for roads, only realising our mistake when we tried to drive to them from the main road. The Inca not only provided water for the fields but saw that all towns were provided with a water supply, and built fine aqueducts. Unusual Custom Possibly the most unusual custom was the existence of the “virgins of the sun" or the “chosen women.” At the age of eight or nine the most attractive and best-born girls throughout the empire were chosen and taken to live in sanctuaries where they were trained to the highest level in culture, weaving and cooking.

At the age of 16, the maidens were divided into three classes, according to beauty. One class apparently became concubines of the Inca. Another was sacrificed to the ever-worshipped sun or forced to live in a convent for life. The third group was given as wives by the Inca to nobles or captains that were in his favour. Little is known of the Inca empire before the Spanish invasion. Historians find it difficult to agree. It is largely thanks to the chroniclers of the 16th century who delved into legend and wrote down events of the times that we can picture this fascinating world as it was.

This is the fourth of « series of five articles written by members of the New Zealand Andes Expedition. They are Messrs D Mackay, of Christchurch. H. Jacobs, of Tc Anau. and E- Cotter, of Gore, and Dr. Michael Nelson, a New Zealandet working in tha Argentine