The Incas: At their Height

In 1463 Pachacutec - remember him from the end of Wednesday's post? - turned over command of the military to his son, Thupa Inca. Finally, Pachacutec was free to follow his true passion: building. Pachacutec ordered the building of some of the greatest Incan sites and oversaw the development of the road system. The roads, though less impressive than ruins to look at, are one of the Incas' greatest accomplishments. Runners could take messengers from Quito to Cusco (about 1000 miles) in just twelve days.

Pachacutec found the labor for these great works in his own populace. He declared all land to be the property of the state (convenient for him, since he was the head of the state). He also set up a system of vertical socialism. He conscripted peasants to work on public projects part of each year. The workers were had all their basic needs met. The empire took fairly good care of his subjects. Even Mario Vargas Llosa, no fan of the Incas, admits that they “managed to eradicate hunger.” Some people today are keen to point to such accomplishments as proof that the Incas were friendly, benevolent rulers, but one look at Machu Picchu is enough to tell you that these public works projects were no picnic to make.

So let's look at some of the most impressive Incan sites. Not all of these were constructed on Pachacutec's orders, in fact, my sources weren't very clear about who constructed most of the sites. I've used the trusty knowledge center of the people, by the people, and for the people, Wikipedia, to fill in the gaps of my knowledge. This list covers only a small fracton of the Incan ruins scattered around Cusco.

The Storehouses. The low air pressure and cold,
dry air preserved the food well. Source

•         Ollantaytambo - If you go to Machu Picchu, there's a good chance you'll catch the train in the difficult to pronounce town of Ollantaytambo. The fort of Ollantaytambo is a really cool site that's worth checking out. It served as the capital of the Inca state after the Spanish took over Cusco and was the site of the Incas' last great stand against the conquistadors in 1536. 

The fort at the top of the complex. Source

•         Cusco/ Awkaypata Plaza – this was the Central plaza of Cusco. It measures 625 feet by 550 feet. In Pachacutec's time it was covered with white sand that was imported to Cusco from the Pacific. The sand was kept neat by the daily efforts of the city's workers. The plaza was surrounded by villas and temples, which were all decorated with gold leaf on their facades. When the sun rose and hit the Awkaypata plaza, the white sand and the gold buildings reflected the light so much that, according to Charles C. Mann, “the space became an amphitheater for the exaltation of light.” Today it is the central plaza of Cusco.

•         Koricancha - The Koricancha was the Vatican of the Incan religion. It was the most important temple. The Spanish who saw it desribed it as "fabulous beyond belief." The inside was covered with sheets of gold and many of the statues were made of gold as well. The gold inside was used to help pay for Atahualpa's ransom (more on that another day). The Spanish built a church and convent on top of the Koricancha foundation. Today it is Santo Domingo's. When I was doing my host stay my host sister and I went to mass there.

You can see the difference in architecural styles very clearly here.
Source

•         Machu Picchu – This is the big one. It's the most popular archaeological site in the western hemisphere. If you go to Peru as a tourist, chances are the highlight of the trip is a day the ancient city. But Machu Picchu is a mystery. There is no consensus about why Machu Picchu was built and what  its purpose was. Some argue that it was basically the Inca's summer home, sort of an Andean Camp David.[1] The theory that Mark Adams seems to endorse in his book is that Machu Picchu was Pachacutec's tomb. It is clear that Pachachutec built Machu Picchu, as any site with the name Pichu in it was the property of Pachacutec. But it is clear that Machu Picchu was a big deal site for the Incas. Probably bigger for them than it is to the hordes of toursists that ride the train to see it every day.
In addition the sun, the Incas worshipped certain mountains, called apus. There is an apu in each of the four cardinal directions around Machu Picchu. Adams says “if there were a Geiger counter for geogrphic sacredness...Machu Picchu would bury the needle.” The sacred Urubamba river wraps around the base of the mountain on which Machu Picchu stands. Adams' Inca Trail guide, Efrain, sums it up best. “From here you can see everything – jungle, highland, the Andes. Everything. There's no question about it – the Incas got to Machu Picchu and said, 'This is a sacred center. We must build here.'”

Some friends of mine from my semester abroad. Photo Credit - Mikey "El Campeon" Jarrel.

Not as many people know about Huayna Picchu (on the peak in the first photo). If you can buy a ticket, the view is worth it.

And for the record. I have been to Machu Picchu...twice!

•         Alignments – Let me admit right off the bat that I don't really understand the Incan alignments. I don't know how the managed to make their measurements. I don't have a good picture in my head of how everything lines up. But the Incas sure did. The Incan landscape is very focused around the movement of the sun (who was a god and the father of the king). They were able to plan their building sites in relation to the sun's movements. But more than that, the sites were built in relation to each other. The various sites you can easily see traveling around the Cusco area today aren't independent groups of structures, they are part of a network that matched perfectly with the sun's movements. I'll let John Leviers, Mark Adams guide on his expeditions to Peru, explain.

“For two weeks out of every year, the sun comes straight down this corridor.[2] It's right on the June solstice line, the point where the sun rises on the shortest day of the year.** And it's a straight shot to Machu Picchu. The Incas probably hung some sort of golden sheet or reflector at the end of it to reflect sunlight back to Machu Picchu. Can you imagine how spectacular that would have been? Machu Picchu would've still been dark, waiting for sunrise, when the reflection would just shoot across the valley. And in that direction on the summer solstice in December, [here he is pointing northwest] you get a near-perfect alignment from Machu Picchu to Espiritu Pampa. Llactapata was interconnected with Machu Picchu. Count the trails! One, two three, four, five, six. At least six Inca trails leading up to Machu Picchu. Everything was connected.”

*If you've seen The Emperor's New Groove, Emperor Cusco (who has almost zero connection to actual Incas) is planning to build a summer home somewhere in the mountains. It's never explicitly stated, but I think he's looking for somewhere to build Machu Picchu.

**They are standing in a specific hallway in a site called Llactapata, which is near Machu Picchu.

***Astute readers might be saying “wait a minute, the June solstice is the longest day of the year!” Oh astute readers, you're so hemispherically-centric. Peru is south of the equator, which means the seasons, and the solstices, are switched. It's ok to make this mistake. Even Charles C. Mann, who refers to the “Triple Alliance (as the Aztec empire is more precisely known),” messes this up and states that the October meeting between Pizarro and Atahualpa happened in “the fall.”