Machu Picchu and Inca

Machu Picchu
Machu Pikchu
Shown within Peru
Location	Cusco Region, Peru
Coordinates	13°09′48″S 72°32′44″W
Height	2,430 metres (7,970 ft)
History
Founded	c. 1450
Abandoned	1572
Cultures	Inca civilization
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Official name: Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu
Type	Mixed
Criteria	i, iii, vii, ix
Designated	1983 (7th session)
Reference No.	274
State Party	Peru
Region	Latin America and the Caribbean

Practiced Human Sacrifice.

Did not have a writing language.

No IRON. But had Gold.

A man appeared called " Son of the Sun" and built the Empire out of hunter gathere, nomadic people into agriculture based civilization with social hierarchy.

1450-1572

Lagging behind 2000 years from India, 2500 Years from Middle east and 3000 years from Egypt.

Machu Picchu escaped notice from Spanish conqueror. Well preserved.
The Inca referred to their empire as Tawantinsuyu which can be translated as The Four Regions or The Four United Provinces.

There were many local forms of worship, most of them concerning local sacred "Huacas", but the Inca leadership encouraged the worship of Inti - the sun god - and imposed its sovereignty above other cults such as that of Pachamama. The Incas considered their King, the Sapa Inca, to be the "child of the sun." As ancient civilizations sprang up across the planet thousands of years ago, so too the Inca civilization evolved. As with all ancient civilizations, its exact origins are unknown. Their historic record, as with all other tribes evolving on the planet at that time, would be recorded through oral tradition, stone, pottery, gold and silver jewelry, and woven in the tapestry of the people.

Machu Picchu (in hispanicized spelling, Spanish pronunciation: [ˈmatʃu ˈpiktʃu]) or Machu Pikchu (Quechua machuold, old person, pikchu peak; mountain or prominence with a broad base which ends in sharp peaks,^[1] "old peak", pronunciation [ˈmɑtʃu ˈpixtʃu]) is a 15th-century Inca site located 2,430 metres (7,970 ft) above sea level.^[2][3] It is located in the Cusco Region, Urubamba Province, Machupicchu District in Peru.^[4] It is situated on a mountain ridge above the Sacred Valley which is 80 kilometres (50 mi) northwest of Cusco and through which the Urubamba Riverflows. Most archaeologists believe that Machu Picchu was built as an estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuti (1438–1472). Often mistakenly referred to as the "Lost City of the Incas", it is the most familiar icon of Inca civilization.

The Incas built the estate around 1450, but abandoned it a century later at the time of the Spanish Conquest. Although known locally, it was unknown to the outside world before being brought to international attention in 1911 by the American historian Hiram Bingham. Since then, Machu Picchu has become an important tourist attraction. Most of the outlying buildings have been reconstructed in order to give tourists a better idea of what the structures originally looked like.^[5] By 1976, thirty percent of Machu Picchu had been restored.^[5] The restoration work continues to this day.^[6]

Since the site was not known to the Spanish during the colonial period, it is highly significant as a relatively intact cultural site. Machu Picchu was declared a Peruvian Historical Sanctuary in 1981 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.^[3] In 2007, Machu Picchu was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in a worldwide Internet poll.

Machu Picchu was built in the classical Inca style, with polished dry-stone walls. Its three primary structures are theInti Watana, the Temple of the Sun, and the Room of the Three Windows. These are located in what is known by archaeologists as the Sacred District of Machu Picchu.^{[citation needed]}

Machu Picchu is vulnerable to threats. While natural phenomena like earthquakes and weather systems can play havoc with access, the site also suffers from the pressures of too many tourists. In addition, preservation of the area's cultural and archaeological heritage is an ongoing concern.

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1 History
  • 1.1 Theories on the use of Machu Picchu
    • 1.1.1 Machu Picchu was the last Incan city
    • 1.1.2 Machu Picchu was for the Virgins of the Sun
    • 1.1.3 Machu Picchu was a royal retreat
    • 1.1.4 Machu Picchu was built to honor a sacred landscape
  • 1.2 Early encounters
  • 1.3 Demystifying the discovery of Machu Picchu
  • 1.4 Human sacrifice, aliens and mysticism
• 2 Geography
• 3 Site
  • 3.1 Layout
  • 3.2 Inti Watana stone
  • 3.3 Inti Mach'ay and the Royal Feast of the Sun
  • 3.4 Construction
  • 3.5 Roads and transportation
  • 3.6 3D laser scanning of site
• 4 Threats
  • 4.1 Concerns over tourist impact
  • 4.2 January 2010 evacuation
    • 4.2.1 Entrance restrictions
  • 4.3 Cultural artifacts: Dispute between Peru and Yale University
• 5 In media
• 6 See also
• 7 References
  • 7.1 Bibliography
• 8 Further reading
• 9 External links
  • 9.1 Images
• 10 Related information

History[edit]

Hiram Bingham III at his tent door near Machu Picchu in 1912

Machu Picchu was built around 1450, at the height of the Inca Empire.^[7] The construction of Machu Picchu appears to date from the period of the two great Incas, Pachacutec Inca Yupanqui (1438–71) and Tupac Inca Yupanqui (1472–93).^[8] It was abandoned just over 100 years later, in 1572, as a belated result of the Spanish Conquest.^[7][9] It is possible that most of its inhabitants died fromsmallpox introduced by travelers before the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the area.^[10] The latter had notes of a place called Piccho, although there is no record of the Spanish having visited the remote city. The types of sacred rocks defaced by the conquistadors in other locations are untouched at Machu Picchu.^[9]

View of the city of Machu Picchu in 1912 showing the original ruins after major clearing and before modern reconstruction work began.^[5][6]

Although the citadel is located only about 80 kilometers (50 mi) from Cusco, the Inca capital, the Spanish never found it and consequently did not plunder or destroy it, as they did many other sites.^[9] Over the centuries, the surrounding jungle grew over the site, and few knew of its existence.

Hiram Bingham was an American historian employed as a lecturer at Yale University; he was not a trained archaeologist. In 1909, on his way back from attending the Pan-American Scientific Congress in Santiago, he traveled through Peru and was invited to explore the Inca ruins at Choqquequirau in the Apurimac Valley, which gave him an interest in Inca ruins, and an introduction to Peruvian President Leguia. He organized the 1911 Yale Peruvian Expedition with one of its objectives to search for the lost city of Vitcos, the last capital of the Incas. He researched sources and consulted Carlos Romero, a historian in Lima who showed Bingham helpful references and Father Calancha’s Chronicle.

Armed with this information, the expedition went down the Urubamba River valley on the new road that was completed in 1895. En route he asked local people to show them Inca ruins. By the time they camped at Mandor Pampa with Huayna Picchu 2000 feet above them on the opposite bank they had already examined several ruins, including five sites that Herman Tucker explored. But none fitted the descriptions they had of Vitcos.

At Mandor Pampa Bingham asked a local farmer and innkeeper, Melchor Arteaga, if he knew of any ruins in the area and he said he knew of some excellent ruins on the top of Huayna Picchu.^[11] The next day, 24 July 1911, Arteaga led Bingham and Sergeant Carrasco across the river on a primitive log bridge and up the mountain. At the top of the mountain they came across a small hut occupied by a couple of Quechua, Richarte and Alvarez, who were farming some of the original Machu Picchu agricultural terraces that they had cleared four years earlier. After a rest and refreshments Bingham was led along the ridge to the main ruins by Pablito, the 11-year-old son of Alvarez.^[12]

The ruins were mostly covered with vegetation except for the cleared agricultural terraces and clearings used by the farmers as vegetable gardens. Because of the vegetation Bingham was not able to get a full extent of the site. He took some preliminary notes and measurements, took some pictures and observed the fine quality of Inca stonework of several principal buildings. Bingham was unclear of the original purpose of the ruins, but decided that there was no indication that it matched the description of the city of Vitcos.

The expedition continued down the Urubamba and up the Vilcabamba Rivers, examining all the ruins they could find, eventually finding and correctly identifying the site of the old Inca capital, Vitcos, and the nearby temple of Chuquipalta. He then went across a pass and into the Pampaconas Valley where he found more ruins heavily buried in the jungle undergrowth at Espiritu Pampa. Because the site was so heavily overgrown, he only noted a few of the buildings and didn’t appreciate the large extent of the site. In 1964, Gene Savoy ^[13] did further exploration of the ruins at Espiritu Pampa and revealed the full extent of the site, identifying it as Vilcabamba Viejo where the Incas fled to after the Spanish drove them from Vitcos.

On the return of the expedition up the Urubamba River, Bingham sent two of the team to do some clearing and mapping of the site he referred to as Machu Picchu. As Bingham failed to identify the ruins at Espiritu Pampa as Vilcabamba Viejo, he erroneously theorized that Machu Picchu was Vilcabamba Viejo.

Bingham returned to Machu Picchu in 1912 under the sponsorship of Yale University and National Geographic Society and with full support of Peruvian President Leguia. The expedition undertook a massive four-month clearing of the site with local labor, which was expedited with the auspices of the Prefect of Cuzco. Excavation started in 1912 with further excavation of the site undertaken in 1914 and 1915.

Bingham’s focus on Machu Picchu was because of the fine Inca stonework and the well preserved nature of the ruins that had not been disturbed since it was abandoned. Although Bingham put forward various hypotheses to explain the existence of Machu Picchu, none of them have stood the test of further examination and study. Bingham’s lasting contribution is in publicizing Machu Picchu to the world and undertaking a rigorous and thorough study of the site. Bingham wrote a number of books and articles about the discovery of Machu Picchu, the most popular of which today is "Lost City of the Incas", a retrospective account of his 1911 Yale expedition and his discovery of Machu Picchu, written in 1948 near the end of his life.

During Bingham's archaeological studies, he collected various artifacts which he took back to Yale. One of the more prominent artifacts he recovered was a set of ceremonial Incan knives made from bismuth bronze. These knives were molded in the 15th century and are the earliest known artifacts containing bismuth bronze.^[14]

As Bingham's excavations took place on Machu Picchu, local intellectuals began to oppose the operation of Bingham and his team of explorers.^[15] Though local institutions were initially enthused at the idea of the operation supplementing Peruvian knowledge about their ancestry, the team began to encounter accusations of legal and cultural malpractice.^[15] Local landowners began to demand payments of rent from the excavation team, and rumors arose about Bingham and his team stealing artifacts and smuggling them out of Peru through the bordering country of Bolivia.^[15] (In fact Bingham removed many artifacts, but openly and legally; they were deposited in the Yale University Museum.) These accusations worsened when the local press caught wind of the rumors and helped to discredit the legitimacy of the excavation, branding the practice as harmful to the site and claiming that local archaeologists were being deprived of their rightful knowledge about their own history because of the intrusive excavations of the American archaeologists.^[15] By the time Bingham and his team left Machu Picchu, locals began forming coalitions in order to defend their ownership of Machu Picchu and its cultural remains, while Bingham claimed the artifacts ought to be studied by experts in American institutions, an argument that still exists today.^[15]

The site received significant publicity after the National Geographic Society devoted their entire April 1913 issue to Machu Picchu.

In 1981 Peru declared an area of 325.92 square kilometres (125.84 sq mi) surrounding Machu Picchu as a "Historical Sanctuary". In addition to the ruins, the sanctuary includes a large portion of the adjoining region, rich with the flora and fauna of the Peruvian Yungas and Central Andean wet puna ecoregions.^[16]

In 1983 UNESCO designated Machu Picchu a World Heritage Site, describing it as "an absolute masterpiece of architecture and a unique testimony to the Inca civilization".^[2]

The World Monuments Fund placed Machu Picchu on its 2008 Watch List of the 100 Most Endangered Sites in the world because of environmental degradation. This has resulted from the impact of tourism, uncontrolled development in the nearby town of Aguas Calientes, which included a poorly sited tram to ease visitor access, and the construction of a bridge across the Vilcanota River, which is likely to bring even more tourists to the site, in defiance of a court order and government protests against it.

Theories on the use of Machu Picchu[edit]

Machu Picchu was the last Incan city[edit]

Bingham theorized that site was both the last city of the Inca, and also the legendary "lost city" of Vilcabamba la Vieja, which the last of the independent Inca rulers waged a lengthy battle against Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century. He was wrong on this account, as archaeologists later discovered the actual last city was Espíritu Pampa, a jungle site about 80 miles west of the Inca capital city of Cusco. Bingham did visit Espíritu Pampa in 1911. However, he decided the site was not grand enough to be the legendary city.

Excavations in the 1960s by Gene Savoy and latter extensive mapping by Vincent Lee, an architect and Andean explorer, exposed the site to be far bigger than Bingham thought. " ... there were 400 to 500 buildings at the site ... but Bingham had only seen about 20," Lee said, which is more representative for the indigenous name of the site being Vilcabamba Grande.

Machu Picchu was for the Virgins of the Sun[edit]

Bingham suggested that Machu Picchu might have been a temple devoted to the Virgins of the Sun. These women dedicated their lives to the Inca Sun god. This theory was largely based on dozens of skeletons Bingham's team found buried at the site. US osteologist George Eaton said in the early twentieth century that the remains were nearly all females. This theory was overthrown in 2000, when Verano, then at Yale, examined the remains and found that the skeletons were about half males and half females. Verano's analysis was based on skeletal differences between the genders that were not known during Eaton's time. Verano believes Eaton may have been misled by the relatively diminutive size of the Andean people, who are typically shorter and less robust than the European and African skeletons with which Eaton would have been more familiar."He probably saw the small bones and assumed they must be female," he said. Archaeologists now generally agree that the skeletons at Machu Picchu were not those of Inca priestesses, but rather helpers who were brought in from all over the Inca Empire to serve at the site."If you thought of Machu Picchu as a royal hotel or a time-share condo for the Inca emperor and his guests, then these were the staff who cooked the food, grew the crops, and cleaned the place," Verano said.

Machu Picchu was a royal retreat[edit]

Most historians agree with Verano's interpretation of the Machu Picchu skeletons as a group of individuals who worked on a royal retreat under the fifteenth-century Inca Emperor Pachacuti. According to this theory, Machu Picchu was a place for Pachacuti and his royal court, or panaca, to relax, hunt, and entertain guests.

The royal estate theory was first proposed in the 1980s, and is largely based on a sixteenth-century Spanish document that referred to a royal estate called Picchu, which was built in the same general area as Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu was built to honor a sacred landscape[edit]

Another theory suggested by archaeologist and anthropologist Johan Reinhard, Machu Picchu occupied a special place in the "sacred landscape" of the Inca. For example, Machu Picchu is built atop a mountain that is almost completely encircled by the Urubamba River, which the Inca named the Vilcamayo, or Sacred River. Reinhard also pointed out that the rising and setting of the sun when seen from certain locations within Machu Picchu aligns neatly with religiously significant mountains during solstices and equinoxes.

Early encounters[edit]

Although Bingham was the first person to bring word of the ruins to the outside world, previous outsiders were said to have seen them. Simone Waisbard, a long-time researcher of Cusco, claims that Enrique Palma, Gabino Sánchez, and Agustín Lizárraga left their names engraved on one of the rocks at Machu Picchu on 14 July 1901. In 1904, an engineer named Franklin supposedly spotted the ruins from a distant mountain. He told Thomas Payne, an English Christian missionary living in the region, about the site, Payne's family members claim. They also report that in 1906, Payne and fellow missionary Stuart E. McNairn (1867–1956) climbed up to the ruins.

The site may have been discovered and plundered in 1867 by a German businessman, Augusto Berns.^[17] There is some evidence that a German engineer, J. M. von Hassel, arrived earlier. Maps found by historians show references to Machu Picchu as early as 1874.^[18]

Demystifying the discovery of Machu Picchu[edit]

The discovery of Machu Picchu and much of its history has been glorified by Hiram Bingham. This issue has come to light after Hiram's son, Alfred, discovered a collection of letters that his father had sent his mother in 1911. Due to early publications, many people were led to believe that Hiram had long sought after the lost city of the Incas and eventually found it after trekking through a hazardous tropical jungle. Alfred Bingham reveals that this was not the case. In actuality, Machu Picchu was not a chief objective of Hiram's 1911 expedition. Nor was the search for the city long and dangerous. Hiram had been led to the location just forty-eight hours after beginning his journey. The road to Machu Picchu was not hidden in a treacherous wilderness, rather it was located next to a heavily populated region of farmers. Furthermore, Hiram frequently claimed that the paths to Machu Picchu were the most inaccessible in all of the Andes. However, the letters indicate that Hiram used a modern road system and travelled to the region with ease. It is said that the original journey only took Hiram one hour and a half's time. Today, tourists can make the trip from the train line to the ruins in fifteen minutes.^[19]

Alfred further demystifies his father's expedition after discovering a series of unpublished photographs from the original journey. Hiram had claimed that all the ruins of Machu Picchu were covered in a dense vegetation. Contrarily, the photographs depict the ruins in a clear open space. The letters and photographs suggest that Machu Picchu was not isolated in wilderness, but rather connected and populated by several indigenous families. Alfred also suggests that his father did not originally value his findings at Machu Picchu as he only spent one afternoon at the location before returning to his camp. He only decided to further investigate the ruins after some prominent plantation owners told him they knew little of the location's existence.^[20]

Human sacrifice, aliens and mysticism[edit]

There is little information on human sacrifices taking place at Machu Picchu. This can be attributed to the fact that many sacrifices were never given a proper burial and their skeletal remains have succumbed to the elements.^[21]:115 However, there is evidence that indicates the use of retainer sacrifices. In these unique cases, human sacrifices were made to accompany a deceased noble in the afterlife.^[21]:107,119 Although human sacrifices occurred, it was much more common to offer animal, liquid, and dirt sacrifices to the gods. These offerings were made at the Altar of the Condor and are still made today by members of the New Age Andean religion.^[22]:263

It is a belief among some New Age Andean cosmologists that aliens once inhabited the Cusco region of Peru and are responsible for building Machu Picchu's grand architecture. These views have been widely refuted by Peruvians as they feel their ancestors were capable of such technological and architectural feats.^[22]:273–4

Geography[edit]

Map of Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu lies in the southern hemisphere, 13.164 degrees south of the equator.^[23] It is 80 kilometres (50 miles) northwest of Cusco, on the crest of the mountain Machu Picchu, located about 2,430 metres (7,970 feet) above mean sea level, over 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) lower than Cusco, which has an elevation of 3,600 metres (11,800 ft).^[23] As such, it had a milder climate than the Inca capital. It is one of the most important archaeological sites in South America, one of the most visited tourist attractions in all of Latin America ^[24] and the most visited tourist attraction in Peru.

The year at Machu Picchu is divided between wet and dry seasons, with the majority of annual rain falling from October through to April. It can rain at any time of the year.^[23]

Machu Picchu is situated above a bow of the Urubamba River, which surrounds the site on three sides, with cliffs dropping vertically for 450 metres (1,480 ft) to the river at their base. The area is subject to morning mists rising from the river.^[9] The location of the city was a military secret, and its deep precipices and steep mountains provided excellent natural defenses. The Inca Bridge, an Inca rope bridge, across the Urubamba River in the Pongo de Mainique, provided a secret entrance for the Inca army. Another Inca bridge was built to the west of Machu Picchu, the tree-trunk bridge, at a location where a gap occurs in the cliff that measures 6 metres (20 ft). It could be bridged by two tree trunks, but with the trees removed, there was a 570 metres (1,870 ft) fall to the base of the cliffs.

The city sits in a saddle between the two mountains Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu,^[9] with a commanding view down two valleys and a nearly impassable mountain at its back. It has a water supply from springs that cannot be blocked easily, and enough land to grow food for about four times as many people as ever lived there. The hillsides leading to it have been terraced, not only to provide more farmland to grow crops, but to steepen the slopes which invaders would have to ascend. The terraces reduced soil erosion and protected against landslides.^[25] Two high-altitude routes from Machu Picchu go across the mountains back to Cusco, one through the sun gate, and the other across the Inca bridge. Both could be blocked easily, should invaders approach along them. Regardless of its original purpose, it is strategically located and readily defended.

Site[edit]

The dawn mist lifts above the terraced structures

Terraced fields in the upper agricultural sector

Layout[edit]

The site is roughly divided into an urban sector and an agricultural sector, as well as the upper town and the lower town. The temples are part of the upper town, the warehouses the lower.^[26]

The architecture is adapted to the natural form of the mountains. Approximately 200 buildings are arranged on wide parallel terraces around a vast central square that is oriented east-west. The various kanchas or compounds are long and narrow in order to exploit the terrain. Extensive terraces were used for agriculture and sophisticated channeling systems provided irrigation for the fields. Numerous stone stairways set in the walls allowed access to the different levels across the site. The eastern section of the city was probably residential. The western, separated by the square, was for religious and ceremonial purposes. This section contains the Torreón, the massive tower which may have been used as an observatory.^[27]

Temple of the Sun or Torreon

Located in the first zone are the primary archaeological treasures: the Inti Watana, the Temple of the Sun and the Room of the Three Windows. These were dedicated to Inti, their sun god and greatest deity.

The Popular District, or Residential District, is the place where the lower-class people lived. It includes storage buildings and simple houses.

The royalty area, a sector for the nobility, is a group of houses located in rows over a slope; the residence of the amautas(wise persons) was characterized by its reddish walls, and the zone of the ñustas (princesses) had trapezoid-shaped rooms. The Monumental Mausoleum is a carved statue with a vaulted interior and carved drawings. It was used for rites or sacrifices.

The Guardhouse is a three-sided building, with one of its long sides opening onto the Terrace of the Ceremonial Rock. The three-sided style of Inca architecture is known as the wayrona style.^[28]

Inti Watana stone[edit]

Main article: Inti Watana, Urubamba

Inti Watana is believed to have been designed as an astronomic clock or calendar by the Incas

The sculpture carved out from the rock bottom of the sun temple is interpreted as "Water mirrors for observing the sky".^[29] Tourist guides also talk about the "Eyes ofPachamama" (Mother Earth).

The Inti Watana stone is one of many ritual stones in South America. These stones are arranged to point directly at the sun during the winter solstice. The name of the stone (coined perhaps by Bingham) is derived from the Quechua language: intimeans "sun", and wata- is the verb root "to tie, hitch (up)". The Quechua -na suffix derives nouns for tools or places. Henceinti watana is literally an instrument or place to "tie up the sun", often expressed in English as "The Hitching Post of the Sun". The Inca believed the stone held the sun in its place along its annual path in the sky. The stone is situated at 13°9'48" S. At midday on 11 November and 30 January the sun stands almost above the pillar, casting no shadow at all. On 21 June the stone is casting the longest shadow on its southern side and on 21 December a much shorter one on its northern side. Researchers believe that it was built as an astronomic clock or calendar.^{[citation needed]}

Inti Mach'ay and the Royal Feast of the Sun[edit]

Inti Mach'ay is a special cave designed to celebrate and observe the Royal Feast of the Sun. This festival was only to be celebrated by the nobility in the Incan month of Qhapaq Raymi and was associated with the December solstice. The festival would begin earlier in the month and would conclude on the solstice. On this day, boys of the nobility would be initiated into manhood by undergoing an ear-piercing ritual as they watched the sun rise from within the cave.^[30]

Architecturally, Inti Mach'ay is the most significant structure located at Machu Picchu. Its entrances, walls, steps and windows are all comprised with some of the finest masonry found in Incan Empire. The cave also includes a unique tunnel-like window which cannot be found in any other Incan structure. This window was strategically constructed to only allow sunlight into the cave for a span of several days around the time of the December solstice. For this reason, the cave was inaccessible for much of the year.^[31] Inti Mach'ay is located on the eastern side of Machu Picchu, just north of the "Condor Stone." Many of the caves surrounding this area were prehistorically used as tombs, yet there is no evidence to suggest that it too was a burial ground.^[32]

Construction[edit]

Main article: Incan architecture

The central buildings of Machu Picchu use the classical Inca architectural style of polished dry-stone walls of regular shape. The Incas were masters of this technique, called ashlar, in which blocks of stone are cut to fit together tightly without mortar. Many junctions in the central city are so perfect that it is said not even a blade of grass fits between the stones.

View of the residential section of Machu Picchu

Interior of an Inca building, featuring trapezoidal windows

The section of the mountain which Machu Picchu was built on provided several beneficial and detrimental factors. The most apparent detriment was that Machu Picchu was built between two fault lines. This location also frequently received heavy rainfall; this meant that land and mud slides in the area were also common. The Inca needed a solution to these detriments, and Machu Picchu would offer everything they needed.

The seismic activity which is caused by being between two fault lines led the use of mortar and other such building materials to be nearly useless. However, the Inca developed a successful method which allowed the construction of Machu Picchu to be possible. The site offered a natural quarry which was used to construct the over 200 buildings which would sit on the mountaintop. The stones harvested from this quarry were lined up, and shaped to perfectly fit together in a manner which would supply a more sturdy method than mortar would have. However, the Inca would also use the chips which they carved off of the stones in their construction and as a method to avoid mud and landslides, as well as flooding.

These stone chips were used in the terraces and in the large courtyard in the center of Machu Picchu. The terraces were used chiefly to drain and syphon the water from rain, as well as to hold the mountain in place. Each terrace was multi layered: first top soil, then dirt, sand and finally stone chips. This meant that water which sat on the terraces would sift downward into the mountain, as opposed to overflowing and running down the mountain.

The large center area of Machu Picchu also had a system similar to this in place which, again, assisted the main inhabited portion of Machu Picchu from flooding.^[33]

Inca walls had numerous design details that helped protect them against collapsing in an earthquake. Doors and windows are trapezoidal and tilt inward from bottom to top; corners usually are rounded; inside corners often incline slightly into the rooms; and "L"-shaped blocks often were used to tie outside corners of the structure together. These walls do not rise straight from bottom to top, but are offset slightly from row to row.

The Incas never used the wheel in any practical manner. Its use in toys demonstrates that the principle was well-known to them, although it was not applied in their engineering. The lack of strong draft animals, as well as steep terrain and dense vegetation issues, may have rendered the wheel impractical. How they moved and placed the enormous blocks of stones remains a mystery, although the general belief is that they used hundreds of men to push the stones up inclined planes. A few of the stones still have knobs on them that could have been used to lever them into position; it is believed that after the stones were placed, the Incas would have sanded the knobs away, but a few were overlooked.

Roads and transportation[edit]

As part of their road system, the Incas built a road to the Machu Picchu region. Today, thousands of tourists walk the Inca Trail to visit Machu Picchu each year. They congregate at Cusco before starting on the two-, four- or five-day journey on foot from Kilometer 82 or Kilometer 104 (two-day trip) near the town ofOllantaytambo in the Urubamba valley, walking up through the Andes mountain range to the isolated city.

The people of Machu Picchu were connected to long-distance trade, as shown by non-local artifacts found at the site. As an example, Bingham found unmodifiedobsidian nodules at the entrance gateway. In the 1970s, Burger and Asaro determined that these obsidian samples were from the Titicaca or Chivay obsidian source, and that the samples from Machu Picchu showed long-distance transport of this obsidian type in pre-Hispanic Peru.^[34]

At present (2014) Macchu Picchu has no road suitable for vehicles connecting it with the outside world. Access is by train to a station at the foot of the hill.

3D laser scanning of site[edit]

In 2005 and 2009, the University of Arkansas made detailed laser scans of the entire Machu Picchu site and of the ruins at the top of the adjacent Huayna Picchu mountain. The university has made the scan data available online for research purposes.^[35]

Threats[edit]

Concerns over tourist impact[edit]

Machu Picchu is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Since its discovery in 1911, growing numbers of tourists have visited Machu Picchu, reaching 400,000 in 2000.^[36]As Peru's most visited tourist attraction and major revenue generator, it is continually threatened by economic and commercial forces. In the late 1990s, the Peruvian government granted concessions to allow the construction of a cable car and development of a luxury hotel, including a tourist complex with boutiques and restaurants. Many people protested against the plans, including members of the Peruvian public, international scientists, and academics, as they were worried that the greater numbers of visitors would pose a tremendous physical burden on the ruins.^[37] Many protested a plan to build a bridge to the site as well.^[38] A no-fly zone exists above the area.^[39] UNESCO is considering putting Machu Picchu on its List of World Heritage in Danger.^[38]

During the 1980s a large rock from Machu Picchu's central plaza was moved out of its alignment to a different location to create a helicopter landing zone. Since the 1990s, the government has forbidden helicopter landings there. In 2006 a Cusco-based company, Helicusco, sought to have tourist flights over Machu Picchu and initially received a license to do so, but the government quickly overturned the decision.^[40]

In recent years, Machu Picchu has experienced a multitude of issues with tourist safety. There have been several accounts of tourist deaths linked to altitude sickness, floods and hiking accidents.^{[41][42][43][44]} It has also been noted that UNESCO has received harsh criticism for allowing tourists to go to the location even though there are high risks of landslides, earthquakes and injury due to decaying structures.^[45]

To the displeasure of Peruvian officials, it has become a recent trend amongst tourists to enjoy the sites of Machu Picchu in the nude. There have been several incidents where tourists have been detained while posing for nude pictures. Among other occurrences, some tourists have been detained for streaking across the grassy fields of Machu Picchu. Peru's Ministry of Culture has denounced these acts as they claim that events such as these threaten Peru's cultural heritage. Cusco's Regional Director of Culture has since increased surveillance in an attempt to crackdown on naked tourism.^[46]

January 2010 evacuation[edit]

See also: El Niño-Southern Oscillation

In January 2010, heavy rain caused flooding which buried or washed away roads and railways leading to Machu Picchu, trapping more than 2,000 local people and more than 2,000 tourists, who were taken out by airlift. Machu Picchu was closed temporarily,^[47] but it reopened on 1 April 2010.^[48]

View of Machu Picchu from Huayna Picchu, showing the Hiram Bingham Highway used by tour buses to and from the town of Aguas Calientes

Entrance restrictions[edit]

In July 2011, the Dirección Regional de Cultura Cusco (DRC) introduced new entrance rules to the citadel of Machu Picchu.^[49] The tougher entrance rules were a measure to reduce the impact of tourism on the site. Entrance was limited to 2,500 visitors per day, and entrance to Huayna Picchu (within the citadel) was further restricted to 400 visitors per day, in two allocated time slots at 7am and 10am.

In May 2012 a team of UNESCO conservation experts called on Peruvian authorities to take "emergency measures" to further stabilize the site’s buffer zone and protect it from damage due to tourism-related development, particularly in the nearby town of Aguas Calientes, which has grown rapidly.^[50]

Cultural artifacts: Dispute between Peru and Yale University[edit]

In 1912 and 1914–15, Bingham excavated treasures from Machu Picchu—ceramic vessels, silver statues, jewelry, and human bones—and took them from Peru toYale University in the United States for further study, supposedly for a period of 18 months. Yale retained the artifacts until 2012, under the argument that Peru did not have the infrastructure or proper conditions to take care of the pieces.

Eliane Karp, an anthropologist who is married to the former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo, accused Yale of profiting from Peru's cultural heritage by claiming title to thousands of pieces removed by Bingham. Many were on display at Yale's Peabody Museum since their removal. Yale returned some of the artifacts to Peru in 2006, but the university kept the remainder, claiming its position was supported by federal case law involving Peruvian antiquities.^[51]

On 19 September 2007, the Courant reported that Peru and Yale had reached an agreement regarding the requested return of the artifacts. The agreement included sponsorship of a joint traveling exhibition and construction of a new museum and research center in Cusco about which Yale advised Peruvian officials. Yale acknowledges Peru's title to all the excavated objects from Machu Picchu, but Yale will share rights with Peru in the research collection, part of which will remain at Yale as an object of continuing study.^[52]

On 19 June 2008, National Geographic Society's vice-president Terry Garcia was quoted by the daily publication, La República. "We were part of this agreement. National Geographic was there, we know what was said, the objects were lent and should be returned."

On 21 November 2010, Yale University agreed in principle to the return of the controversial artifacts to their original home in Peru.^[53] The third and final batch of thousands of artifacts were delivered November 2012.^[54]

La Casa Concha (The Shell House) located close to Cusco's colonial center is the permanent site where the Yale University artifacts are exhibited. Owned by the National University of San Antonio Abad Del Cusco, La Casa Concha also features a study area for local and foreign students.

Panoramic photograph of Machu Picchu, looking towards Huayna Picchu

Panoramic photograph of the residential section

In media[edit]

Esteban Pavletich (es) and Pablo Neruda in Machu Picchu

The 1954 film Secret of the Incas was filmed by Paramount Pictures on location at Cusco and Machu Picchu, the first time that a major Hollywood studio filmed on site. Five hundred indigenous people were hired as extras in the film.^[55]

The opening sequence of the 1972 film Aguirre, the Wrath of God was shot in the Machu Picchu area and on the stone stairway of Huayna Picchu.^[56]

Machu Picchu also is featured prominently in the 2004 film, The Motorcycle Diaries, a biopic based on the 1952 youthful travelmemoir of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara.^[57]

NOVA TV Documentary "Ghosts of Machu Picchu" presents an elaborate documentary on the mysteries of Machu Picchu.^[58]

The song "Kilimanjaro" from the 2010 South Indian Tamil film Enthiran was filmed in Machu Picchu.^[59] The sanction for filming was granted only after direct intervention from the Indian government.^[60][61]

 general view of Inca civilization, people and culture, see Andean civilizations. For other uses, see Inca (disambiguation).

Inca Empire
Tawantinsuyu  (Quechua)
←  1438–1533  →  →  →
Banner of the Tawantinsuyu
The Inca Empire at its greatest extent
Capital		Cusco  (1438–1533)
Languages		Quechua (official),Aymara, Puquina, Jaqifamily, Muchik and scores of smaller languages.
Religion		Inca religion
Government		Monarchy
Sapa Inca
-	1438–1471	Pachacuti
-	1471–1493	Túpac Inca Yupanqui
-	1493–1525	Huayna Capac
-	1525–1532	Huáscar
-	1532–1533	Atahualpa
Historical era		Pre-Columbian
-	Pachacuti created the Tawantinsuyu	1438
-	Civil war betweenHuáscar andAtahualpa	1529–1532
-	Spanish conquestled by Francisco Pizarro	1533
-	End of the last Incaresistance	1572
Area
-	1438[1]	800,000 km²(308,882 sq mi)
-	1527	2,000,000 km²(772,204 sq mi)
Population
-	1438[1] est.	12,000,000
Density		15 /km²  (38.8 /sq mi)
-	1527 est.	20,000,000
Density		10 /km²  (25.9 /sq mi)
Today part of		Argentina  Bolivia  Chile  Colombia  Ecuador  Peru

Inca Empire
Inca society
Education · Religion · Mythology
Architecture · Engineering · Roads
Army · Agriculture · Cuisine
Inca history
Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire
v t e

The Inca Empire (Quechua: Tawantinsuyu, lit. "The Four Regions"^[2]), also known as the Inka Empire or Incan Empire, was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America.^[3] The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was located in Cusco in modern-day Peru. The Inca civilization arose from the highlands of Peru sometime in the early 13th century, and the last Inca stronghold was conquered by the Spanish in 1572.

From 1438 to 1533, the Incas used a variety of methods, from conquest to peaceful assimilation, to incorporate a large portion of western South America, centered on the Andean mountain ranges, including, besides Peru, large parts of modern Ecuador, western and south central Bolivia, northwest Argentina, north and central Chile, and a small part of southern Colombia into a state comparable to the historical empires of Eurasia. The official language of the empire was Quechua, although hundreds of local languages and dialects of Quechua were spoken. Many local forms of worship persisted in the empire, most of them concerning local sacred Huacas, but the Inca leadership encouraged the worship of Inti—their sun god—and imposed its sovereignty above other cults such as that of Pachamama.^[4] The Incas considered their king, the Sapa Inca, to be the "son of the sun."^[5]

Name

The Inca referred to their empire as Tawantinsuyu,^[2] "the four suyo". In Quechua, tawa is four and -ntin is a suffix naming a group, so that a tawantin is a quartet, a group of four things taken together. The empire was divided into four suyus ("region" or "province"), whose corners met at the capital, Cusco (Qosqo). The four suyos were: Chinchay Suyo (North), Anti Suyo (East. The Amazon jungle), Colla Suyo (South) and Conti Suyo (West). The nameTawantinsuyu was, therefore, a descriptive term indicating a union of provinces. The Spanish transliterated the name as Tahuatinsuyo or Tahuatinsuyu which is often still used today.

The term Inka means ruler, or "lord," in Quechua, and was used to refer to the ruling class or the ruling family in the empire.^[6]The Spanish adopted the term (transliterated as Inca in Spanish) as an ethnic term referring to all subjects of the empire rather than simply the ruling class. As such the name Imperio inca ("Inca Empire") referred to the nation that they encountered, and subsequently conquered.

History

Origin

Inca oral history mentions three possible places as three caves. The center cave, Tambo Tocco, was named for Capac Tocco. The other caves were Maras Tocco and Sutic Tocco.^[7] Four brothers and four sisters stepped out of the middle cave. They were: Ayar Manco, Ayar Cachi, Ayar Auca, and Ayar Uchu; and Mama Ocllo, Mama Raua, Mama Huaca, and Mama Cora. Out of the side caves came the people who were to be the ancestors of all the clans of the Inca people.

Ayar Manco carried a magic staff made of the finest gold. Where this staff landed, the people would all live there. They travelled for a very, very long time. On the way, Ayar Cachi was boasting about his great strength and power, and his siblings tricked him into returning to the cave to get a sacred llama. When he went into the cave, they trapped him inside to get rid of him.

Ayar Uchu decided to stay on the top of the cave to look over the Inca people. The minute he proclaimed that, he turned to stone. They built a shrine around the stone and it became a sacred object. Ayar Auca grew tired of all this and decided to travel alone. Only Ayar Manco and his four sisters remained.

Finally, they reached Cusco. The staff sank into the ground. Before they reached here, Mama Ocllo had already borne Ayar Manco a child, Sinchi Roca. The people who were already living in Cusco fought hard to keep their land, but Mama Huaca was a good fighter. When the enemy attacked, she threw her bolas (several stones tied together that spun through the air when thrown) at a soldier (gualla), and killed him instantly. The other people were so scared, they ran away.

After that, Ayar Manco became known as Manco Cápac, the founder of the Inca. It is said that he and his sisters built the first Inca homes in the valley with their own hands. When the time came, Manco Cápac turned to stone like his brothers before him. His son, Sinchi Roca, became the second emperor of the Inca.^[8]

Kingdom of Cusco

Main article: Kingdom of Cusco

We can assure your majesty that it is so beautiful and has such fine buildings that it would even be remarkable in Spain.

“

”

Francisco Pizarro

The Inca people were a pastoral tribe in the Cusco area around the 12th century. Under the leadership of Manco Cápac, they formed the small city-state Kingdom of Cusco (Quechua Qusqu', Qosqo). In 1438, they began a far-reaching expansion under the command of Sapa Inca (paramount leader) Pachacuti-Cusi Yupanqui, whose name literally meant "earth-shaker". The name of Pachacuti was given to him after conquering over the Tribe of Chancas (modern Apurímac). During his reign, he and his son Tupac Yupanqui brought much of the Andes mountains (roughly modern Peru and Ecuador) under Inca control.^[9]

Reorganization and formation

The first image of the Inca in Europe, Pedro Cieza de León, Cronica del Peru, 1553

Pachacuti reorganized the kingdom of Cusco into the Tahuantinsuyu, which consisted of a central government with the Inca at its head and four provincial governments with strong leaders: Chinchasuyu (NW), Antisuyu (NE), Kuntisuyu (SW), andQullasuyu (SE).^[10] Pachacuti is also thought to have built Machu Picchu, either as a family home or as a summer retreat, although there is speculation that Machu Picchu was constructed as an agricultural station.^[11]

Pachacuti sent spies to regions he wanted in his empire; they brought reports on the political organization, military might and wealth. He would then send messages to the leaders of these lands extolling the benefits of joining his empire, offering them presents of luxury goods such as high quality textiles, and promising that they would be materially richer as subject rulers of the Inca.

Most accepted the rule of the Inca as a fait accompli and acquiesced peacefully. The ruler's children would then be brought to Cusco to be taught about Inca administration systems, then return to rule their native lands. This allowed the Inca to indoctrinate the former ruler's children into the Inca nobility, and, with luck, marry their daughters into families at various corners of the empire.

Expansion and consolidation

Manco Cápac and Mama Ocllo, children of theInti

Traditionally the Inca's son led the army; Pachacuti's son Túpac Inca Yupanqui began conquests to the north in 1463, and continued them as Inca after Pachacuti's death in 1471. His most important conquest was the Kingdom of Chimor, the Inca's only serious rival for the coast of Peru. Túpac Inca's empire stretched north into modern-day Ecuador and Colombia.

Túpac Inca's son Huayna Cápac added a small portion of land to the north in modern-day Ecuador and in parts of Peru. At its height, the Inca Empire included Peru and Bolivia, most of what is now Ecuador, a large portion of what is today Chile north of the Maule Riverin central Chile. The advance south halted after the Battle of the Maule where they met determined resistance by the Mapuche. The empire's push into the Amazon Basin near the Chinchipe River was pushed back by the Shuar in 1527.^[12] The empire also extended into corners of Argentina and Colombia. However, most of the southern portion of the Inca empire, the portion denominated as Qullasuyu, was located in the Altiplano.

The Inca Empire was an amalgamation of languages, cultures and peoples. The components of the empire were not all uniformly loyal, nor were the local cultures all fully integrated. The Inca empire as a whole had an economy based on exchange and taxation of luxury goods and labour. The following quote reflects a method of taxation:

"For as is well known to all, not a single village of the highlands or the plains failed to pay the tribute levied on it by those who were in charge of these matters. There were even provinces where, when the natives alleged that they were unable to pay their tribute, the Inca ordered that each inhabitant should be obliged to turn in every four months a large quill full of live lice, which was the Inca's way of teaching and accustoming them to pay tribute".^[13]

Inca civil war and Spanish conquest

Main articles: Inca war of succession and Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire

One of the main events in the conquest of the Inca Empire was the death of Atahualpa, the last Sapa Incaon 29 August 1533

Spanish conquistadors led by Francisco Pizarro and his brothers explored south from what is today Panama, reaching Inca territory by 1526.^[14] It was clear that they had reached a wealthy land with prospects of great treasure, and after one more expedition in 1529, Pizarro traveled to Spain and received royal approval to conquer the region and be its viceroy. This approval was received as detailed in the following quote: "In July 1529 the queen of Spain signed a charter allowing Pizarro to conquer the Incas. Pizarro was named governor and captain of all conquests in Peru, or New Castile, as the Spanish now called the land."^[15]

When they returned to Peru in 1532, a war of the two brothers between Huayna Capac's sons Huáscar and Atahualpa and unrest among newly conquered territories—and perhaps more importantly, smallpox, which had spread from Central America—had considerably weakened the empire. Pizarro did not have a formidable force; with just 168 men, 1 cannon and 27 horses, he often needed to talk his way out of potential confrontations that could have easily wiped out his party.

The Spanish horsemen, fully armored, had great technological superiority over the Inca forces. The traditional mode of battle in the Andes was a kind of siege warfare where large numbers of usually reluctant draftees were sent to overwhelm opponents. The Spaniards had developed one of the finest military machines in the premodern world, tactics learned in their centuries-long fight against Moorish kingdoms in Iberia. Along with this tactical and material superiority, the Spaniards also had acquired tens of thousands of native allies who sought to end the Inca control of their territories.

Inca expansion (1438–1533)

Their first engagement was the Battle of Puná, near present-day Guayaquil, Ecuador, on the Pacific Coast; Pizarro then founded the city of Piura in July 1532. Hernando de Soto was sent inland to explore the interior and returned with an invitation to meet the Inca, Atahualpa, who had defeated his brother in the civil war and was resting at Cajamarca with his army of 80,000 troops.

Pizarro and some of his men, most notably a friar named Vincente de Valverde, met with the Inca, who had brought only a small retinue. Through an interpreter Friar Vincente read the "Requerimiento" that demanded that he and his empire accept the yoke of King Charles I of Spain and convert to Christianity. Because of the language barrier and perhaps poor interpretation, Atahualpa became somewhat puzzled by the friar's description of Christian faith and was said to have not fully understood the envoy's intentions. After Atahualpa attempted further enquiry into the doctrines of the Christian faith under which Pizarro's envoy served, the Spanish became frustrated and impatient, attacking the Inca's retinue and capturing Atahualpa as hostage.

Atahualpa offered the Spaniards enough gold to fill the room he was imprisoned in, and twice that amount of silver. The Inca fulfilled this ransom, but Pizarro deceived them, refusing to release the Inca afterwards. During Atahualpa's imprisonment Huáscar was assassinated elsewhere. The Spaniards maintained that this was at Atahualpa's orders; this was used as one of the charges against Atahualpa when the Spaniards finally decided to put him to death, in August 1533.^[16]

Last Incas

View of Machu Picchu

The Spanish installed Atahualpa's brother Manco Inca Yupanqui in power; for some time Manco cooperated with the Spanish, while the Spanish fought to put down resistance in the north. Meanwhile an associate of Pizarro's, Diego de Almagro, attempted to claim Cusco for himself. Manco tried to use this intra-Spanish feud to his advantage, recapturing Cusco in 1536, but the Spanish retook the city afterwards. Manco Inca then retreated to the mountains of Vilcabamba, Peru, where he and his successors ruled for another 36 years, sometimes raiding the Spanish or inciting revolts against them. In 1572 the last Inca stronghold was conquered, and the last ruler, Túpac Amaru, Manco's son, was captured and executed.^[17]This ended resistance to the Spanish conquest under the political authority of the Inca state.

After the fall of the Inca Empire many aspects of Inca culture were systematically destroyed, including their sophisticated farming system, known as the vertical archipelago model of agriculture.^[18] Spanish colonial officials used the Inca mitacorvée labor system for colonial aims, sometimes brutally. One member of each family was forced to work in the gold and silver mines, the foremost of which was the titanic silver mine at Potosí. When a family member died, which would usually happen within a year or two, the family would be required to send a replacement.^{[citation needed]}

The effects of smallpox on the Inca empire were even more devastating. Beginning in Colombia, smallpox spread rapidly before the Spanish invaders first arrived in the empire. The spread was probably aided by the efficient Inca road system. Within a few years smallpox claimed between 60% and 94% of the Inca population,^{[citation needed]} with other waves of European disease weakening them further. Smallpox was only the first epidemic.^[19] Typhus (probably) in 1546, influenzaand smallpox together in 1558, smallpox again in 1589, diphtheria in 1614, measles in 1618 – all ravaged the remains of Inca culture.

Society

Main articles: Inca society and Inca education

Manco Capac, First Inca, 1 of 14 Portraits of Inca Kings, Probably mid-18th century. Oil on canvas. Brooklyn Museum

Population

There is some debate about the number of people inhabiting Tawantinsuyu at its peak, with estimates ranging from as few as 4 million people, to more than 37 million. The reason for these various estimates is that in spite of the fact that the Inca kept excellent census records using their quipu, knowledge of how to read them has been lost, and almost all of them had been destroyed by the Spaniards in the course of their conquest.^[20]

Language

Main article: Quechua languages

Since the Inca Empire lacked a written language, the empire's main form of communication and recording came from quipus,ceramics and spoken Quechua, the language the Incas imposed upon the peoples within the empire. The plethora of civilizations in the Andean region provided for a general disunity that the Incas needed to subdue in order to maintain control of the empire. While Quechua had been spoken in the Andean region, like central Peru, for several years prior to the expansion of the Inca civilization, the type of Quechua the Incas imposed was an adaptation from the Kingdom of Cusco (an early form of "Southern Quechua" originally named Qhapaq Runasimi = The great language of the people) of what some historians define as the Cusco dialect.^[21][22]

The language imposed by the Incas further diverted from its original phonetic tone as some societies formed their own regional varieties, or slang. The diversity of Quechua at that point and even today does not come as a direct result from the Incas, who are just a part of the reason for Quechua's diversity. The civilizations within the empire that had previously spoken Quechua kept their own variety distinct from the Quechua the Incas spread. Although these dialects of Quechua have a similar linguistic structure, they differ according to the region in which they are spoken.^[22]

Although most of the societies within the empire implemented Quechua into their lives, the Incas allowed several societies to keep their old languages such asAymara, which still remains a spoken language in contemporary Bolivia where it is the primary indigenous language and various regions of South America surrounding Bolivia. The linguistic body of the Inca Empire was thus largely varied, but it still remains quite an achievement for the Incas that went beyond their time as the Spanish continued the use of Quechua.^[22]

Religion

See also: Religion in the Inca Empire and Inca mythology

Diorite Inca sculpture from Amarucancha

Inca myths were an oral tradition until early Spanish colonists recorded them; however, some scholars believe that they may have been recorded on quipus, Andean knotted string records.^[23]

The Inca believed in reincarnation.^[24] Death was a passage to the next world that was full of difficulties. The spirit of the dead, camaquen. would need to follow a long dark road and during the trip the assistance of a black dog that was able to see in the dark was required. Most Incas imagined the after world to be very similar to the Euro-American notion of heaven, with flower-covered fields and snow-capped mountains. It was important for the Inca to ensure they did not die as a result of burning or that the body of the deceased did not become incinerated. This is because of the underlying belief that a vital force would disappear and threaten their passage to the after world. Those who obeyed the Inca moral code—ama suwa, ama llulla, ama quella (do not steal, do not lie, do not be lazy) —"went to live in the Sun's warmth while others spent their eternal days in the cold earth"^{[citation needed]}. The Inca also practiced cranial deformation.^[25] They achieved this by wrapping tight cloth straps around the heads of newborns in order to alter the shape of their soft skulls into a more conical form; this cranial deformation was made to distinguish social classes of the communities, with only the nobility having cranial deformation.

The Incas made human sacrifices. As many as 4,000 servants, court officials, favorites, and concubines were killed upon the death of the Inca Huayna Capac in 1527, for example.^[26] The Incas also performed child sacrifices during or after important events, such as the death of the Sapa Inca or during a famine. These sacrifices were known as capacocha.^[27]

Deities

Viracocha, is the great creator god in Inca mythology

• Viracocha (also Pachacamac) – Created all living things
• Apu Illapu – Rain God, prayed to when they need rain
• Ayar Cachi – Hot-tempered God, causes earthquakes
• Illapa – Goddess of lightning and thunder (also Yakumama water goddess)
• Inti – sun god and patron deity of the holy city of Cusco (home of the sun)
• Kuychi – Rainbow God, connected with fertility
• Mama Kilya – Wife of Inti, called Moon Mother
• Mama Occlo – Wisdom to civilize the people, taught women to weave cloth, and build houses
• Manco Cápac – known for his courage and sent to earth to become first king of the Incas, taught people how to grow plants, make weapons, work together, share resources, and worship the Gods
• Pachamama – The Goddess of earth and wife of Viracocha, people give her offerings of coca leafs and beer and pray to her for major agricultural occasions
• Qochamama – Goddess of the sea
• Sachamama – Means Mother Tree, goddess in the shape of a snake with two heads
• Yakumama – Means mother Water, represented as a snake, when she came to earth she transformed into a great river (also Illapa)

Economy

Illustration of Inca farmersusing a chakitaqlla (Andean footplough)

Further information: Vertical archipelago and Mit'a

The economy of the Inca Empire has been characterized as involving a high degree of central planning. While evidence of trade between the Inca Empire and outside regions has been uncovered, there is no evidence that the Incas had a substantial internalmarket economy. While axe-monies were used along the northern coast, presumably by the provincial mindaláe trading class,^[28]most inhabitants of the empire would have lived in a traditional economy in which male heads of household were required to pay taxes both in kind (e.g., crops, textiles, etc.) and in the form of the mit'a corvée labor and military obligations,^[29] though barter (ortrueque) was also present in some areas.^[30] In return, the state provided security, food in times of hardship through the supply of emergency resources, agricultural projects (e.g. aqueducts and terraces) to increase productivity, and occasional feasts. The economy rested on the material foundations of the vertical archipelago, a system of ecological complementarity in accessing resources,^[31] and the cultural foundation of ayni, or reciprocal exchange.^[32][33]

Government

Main article: Inca Government

Beliefs

The Sapa Inca was conceptualized as divine and was effectively head of the state religion. Only the Willaq-Umu (or Chief Priest) was second to the emperor. Local religious traditions were allowed to continue, and in some cases such as the Oracle at Pachacamac on the Peruvian coast, were officially venerated. Following Pachacuti, the Sapa Inca claimed descent from Inti, which placed a high value on imperial blood; by the end of the empire, it was common to wed brother and sister. He was “son of the sun,” and his people the intip churin, or “children of the sun,” and both his right to rule and mission to conquer derived from his holy ancestor. The Sapa Inca also presided over ideologically important festivals, notably during the Inti Raymi, or “warriors’ cultivation,” attended by soldiers, mummified rulers, nobles, clerics, and the general population of Cusco beginning on the auspicious June solstice and culminating nine days later with the ritual breaking of the earth using a foot plow by the Inca himself. Moreover, Cusco itself was considered cosmologically central, loaded as it was with huacas and radiating ceque lines, and geographic center of the Four Quarters; Inca Garcilaso de la Vega himself called it “the navel of the universe.”^{[34][35][36][37]}

Organization of the empire

The Inca Empire's southern border defined by the Maule or Maipo River (scholars differ).^[38]Inca troops never crossed the Bío Bío River.^[39]

The Inca Empire was a federalist system which consisted of a central government with the Inca at its head and four quarters, or suyu:Chinchay Suyu (NW), Anti Suyu (NE), Kunti Suyu (SW), and Qulla Suyu (SE). The four corners of these quarters met at the center, Cusco. These suyu were likely created around 1460 during the reign of Pachacuti before the empire assumed its largest territorial extent. It is probably the case that at the time the suyu were established they were roughly of equal size and only later changing their proportions as the empire expanded north and south along the Andes.^[40]

The capital area, Cusco, was likely not organized as a wamani, or province. Rather, it was probably somewhat akin to a modern federal district, like Washington, D.C. or Mexico City. The city sat at the center of the four suyu and served as the preeminent center of politics and religion. While Cusco was essentially governed by the Sapa Inca, his relatives, and the royal panaqa lineages, each suyu was governed by an Apu, a term of great esteem used for men of very high status and for venerated mountains. Just as with so much of Andean society and Inca administration, both Cusco as a district and the four suyu as administrative regions were grouped into upperhanan and lower hurin divisions. As the Inca did not have written records, it is impossible to exhaustively list the constituent wamani. However, records created during the Spanish colonial period allow us to reconstruct a partial list. There were likely more than 86wamani, with more than 48 in the highlands and more than 38 on the coast.^[41]

The four suyu

The four suyus or quarters of the empire.

The most populous suyu, Chinchaysuyu, encompassed the former lands of the Chimu empire and much of the northern Andes. At its largest extent, this suyu extended through much of modern Ecuador and just into modern Colombia. '

Collasuyu or Qollasuyu was named after the Aymara-speaking Qolla people and was the largest of the quarters in terms of area. This suyu encompassed the Bolivian Altiplano and much of the southern Andes, running down into Argentina and as far south as the Maipo or Maule river in Central Chile.^[38] In Central Chile, historian José Bengoa has pointed out Quillota as being perhaps the foremost Inca settlement.^[42]

The second smallest of the suyu, Antisuyu, was located northwest of Cusco in high Andes. Indeed, it is the root of the word “Andes.”^[43]

Cuntisuyu or Kuntisuyu was the smallest suyu of all, located along the southern coast of modern Peru, extending into the highlands towards Cusco.^[44]

Laws

Inti, as represented by José Bernardo de Tagle of Peru

The Inca state had no separate judiciary or codified set of laws. While customs, expectations, and traditional local power holders did much in the way of governing behavior, the state, too, had legal force, such as through tokoyrikoq (lit. "he who sees all"), or inspectors. The highest such inspector, typically a blood relation to the Sapa Inca, acted independently of the conventional hierarchy, providing a point of view for the Sapa Inca free of bureaucratic influence.^[45]

Administration

The colonial-era sources are not entirely clear or in agreement about the nature of the structure of the Inca government. However, its basic structure can be spoken of broadly, even if the exact duties and functions of government positions cannot be told. At the top of the chain of administration sat the Sapa Inca. Next to the Sapa Inca in terms of power may have been the Willaq Umu, literally the "priest who recounts", who was the High Priest of the Sun.^[46] However, it has been noted that beneath the Sapa Inca also sat the Inkap rantin, who was at the very least a confidant and assistant to the Sapa Inca, perhaps along the lines of a Prime Minister.^[47] From the time of Topa Inca Yupanqui on, there existed a "Council of the Realm" composed of sixteen nobles: two from hanan Cusco; two from hurin Cusco; four from Chinchaysuyu; two from Cuntisuyu; four from Collasuyu; and two from Antisuyu. This weighting of representation balanced the hanan and hurin divisions of the empire, both within Cusco and within the Quarters (hanan suyukuna and hurin suyukuna).^[48]

While there was a great deal of variation in the form that Inca bureaucracy and government took at the provincial level, the basic form of organization was decimal. In this system of organization, taxpayers—male heads of household of a certain age range—were organized into corvée labor units (which often doubled as military units) that formed the muscle of the state as part of mit'a service. Each level of jurisdiction above one hundred tax-payers was headed by a kuraka, while those heading smaller units were kamayuq, a lower, non-hereditary status. However, while kuraka status was hereditary, one's actual position within the hierarchy (which was typically served for life) was subject to change based upon the privileges of those above them in the hierarchy; a pachaka kuraka (see below) could be appointed to their position by a waranqa kuraka. Furthermore, it has been suggested that one kuraka in each decimal level also served as the head of one of the nine groups at a lower level, so that one pachaka kuraka might also be a waranqa kuraka, in effect directly responsible for one unit of 100 tax-payers and less directly responsible for nine other such units.^[49]

Kuraka in Charge	Number of Taxpayers
Hunu kuraka	10,000
Pichkawaranqa kuraka	5,000
Waranqa kuraka	1,000
Pichkapachaka kuraka	500
Pachaka kuraka	100
Pichkachunka kamayuq	50
Chunka kamayuq	10

^[50]

Arts and technology

Monumental architecture

Architecture was by far the most important of the Inca arts, with textiles reflecting motifs that were at their height in architecture. The main example is the capital city of Cusco. The site of Machu Picchu was constructed by Inca engineers. The stone temples constructed by the Inca used a mortarless construction that fit together so well that a knife could not be fitted through the stonework.

This was a process first used on a large scale by the Pucara (ca. 300 BC–AD 300) peoples to the south in Lake Titicaca, and later in the great city of Tiwanaku (ca. AD 400–1100) in present day Bolivia. The rocks used in construction were sculpted to fit together exactly by repeatedly lowering a rock onto another and carving away any sections on the lower rock where the dust was compressed. The tight fit and the concavity on the lower rocks made them extraordinarily stable.

Measures, calendrics, and mathematics

Inca tunic

Tokapu. Textiles worn by the Inca elite consisting of geometric figures enclosed by rectangles or squares. There is evidence that the designs were an ideographiclanguage^{[citation needed]}

Physical measures employed by the Inca were based upon human body parts. Fingers, the distance between thumb to forefinger, palms, cubits, and wingspans were among those units used. The most basic unit of distance was thatkiy or thatki, or one pace. The next largest unit was reported by Cobo to be the topo or tupu, measuring 6,000 thatkiys, or about 4.8 miles (7.7 km); careful study has shown that a range of 2.5–3.9 miles (4.0–6.3 km) is likely. Next was the wamani, composed of 30topos (roughly 144 miles (232 km)). To measure area, 25 by 50 wingspans were used, reckoned in topos (roughly 1,266 square miles (3,280 km²)). It seems likely as well that distance was often conceptualized as being one day's walk; the distance between tambo way-stations varies widely in terms of distance, but in far less so in terms of time to walk that distance.^[51][52]

Inca calendrics were strongly tied to astronomy. Inca astronomers understood equinoxes, solstices, and likely zenithpassages, not to mention the Venus cycle. They could not, however, predict eclipses. The Inca calendar was essentiallylunisolar, as two calendars were maintained in parallel, one solar and one lunar. As twelve lunar months fall 11-days short of a full 365-day solar year, those in charge of the calendar had to adjust every winter solstice. The twelve lunar months were each marked with specific festivals and rituals.^[53] There apparently were no names for days of the week, and it may be the case that there were no subdivisions of time into weeks at all. Similarly, months were not grouped into seasons. Time during a given day was not reckoned in hours or minutes, but rather in terms of how far the sun had traveled or in how long it takes to perform a task.^[54]

The sophistication of Inca administration, calendrics, and engineering necessitated a certain facility with numbers. Numerical information itself was stored in the knots of quipu strings, allowing for large numbers to be stored in a small amount of space.^[55] These numbers were stored in base-10 digits, the same base as used by the Quechua language^[56] and used in administrative and military units.^[57] These numbers, stored in quipu, could be calculated on yupanas, grids with squares of positionally varying mathematical values perhaps functioning along the lines of an abacus.^[58] Moving piles of tokens, seeds, or pebbles between the different compartments of the yupana allowed for calculations to take place. It is likely that, "at minimum", Inca mathematics were capable of division of integers into integers or fractions and multiplication of integers and fractions.^[59]

According to the mid-seventeenth-century Jesuit chronicler Bernabé Cobo (1983 [1653]: 253–254),^[60] the Inca designated certain officials to perform accounting-related tasks. These officials were called quipo camayos, and the Incas had great confidence in them. In the study of khipu sample VA 42527 (Museum für Völkerkunde, Berlin), Sáez-Rodríguez (2013)^[61]observed that the numbers arranged in calendrically significant patterns were used for agricultural purposes in the “farm account books” kept by the khipukamayuq (accountant or warehouse keeper) to facilitate the closing of his accounting books.^[62]

Ceramics, precious metal work, and textiles

Camelid Conopa, 1470–1532,Brooklyn Museum, Small stone figurines, or conopas, of llamas and alpacas were the most common ritual effigies used in the highlands of Peru and Bolivia. These devotional objects were often buried in the animals’ corrals to bring protection and prosperity to their owners and fertility to the herds. The cylindrical cavities in their backs were filled with offerings to the gods in the form of a mixture including animal fat, coca leaves, maize kernels, and seashells.

Almost all of the gold and silver work of the empire was melted down by the conquistadors.

Ceramics were painted using the polychrome technique portraying numerous motifs including animals, birds, waves, felines (which were popular in the Chavin culture) and geometric patterns found in the Nazca style of ceramics. In place without a written language, ceramics portrayed the very basic scenes of everyday life, including the smelting of metals, relationships and scenes of tribal warfare, it is through these preserved ceramics that we know what life was like for the ancient South Americans. The most distinctive Inca ceramic objects are the Cusco bottles or ¨aryballos¨.^[63] Many of these pieces are on display in Lima in the Larco Archaeological Museum and the National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History.

Communication and medicine

The Inca used assemblages of knotted strings, known as Quipu, to record information, the exact nature of which is no longer known. Originally it was thought that Quipu were used only as mnemonic devices or to record numerical data. Quipus are also believed to record history and literature.^[64]

The Inca made many discoveries in medicine.^{[citation needed]} They performed successful skull surgery, which involved cutting holes in the skull in order to alleviate fluid buildup and inflammation caused by head wounds. Anthropologists have discovered evidence which suggests that most skull surgeries performed by Inca surgeons were successful. In pre-Inca times, only one-third of skull surgery patients survived the procedure. However, survival rates rose to 80–90% during the Inca era.^[65]

Coca

Coca leaves

The Incas revered the coca plant as being sacred or magical. Its leaves were used in moderate amounts to lessen hunger and pain during work, but were mostly used for religious and health purposes.^[66] When the Spaniards realized the effects of chewing the coca leaves, they took advantage of it.^[66] The Chasqui (messengers) chewed coca leaves for extra energy to carry on their tasks as runners delivering messages throughout the empire. The coca leaf was also used during surgeries as an anaesthetic.

Weapons, armor, and warfare

The Battle of the Maulebetween the Incas (right) and theMapuches (left)

The Inca army was the most powerful in the area at that time, because they could turn an ordinary villager or farmer into a soldier, ready for battle. This is because every male Inca had to take part in war at least once so as to be prepared for warfare again when needed. By the time the empire had reached its largest size, every section of the empire contributed in setting up an army for war.

The Incas had no iron or steel, and their weapons were not much better than those of their enemies. They went into battle with the beating of drums and the blowing of trumpets. The armor used by the Incas included:

• Helmets made of wood, copper, bronze, cane, or animal skin; some were adorned with feathers
• Round or square shields made from wood or hide
• Cloth tunics padded with cotton and small wooden planks to protect the spine.

The Inca weaponry included:

• Bronze or bone-tipped spears
• Two-handed wooden swords with serrated edges
• Clubs with stone and spiked metal heads
• Woolen slings and stones
• Stone or copper headed battle-axes
• Bolas (stones fastened to lengths of cord)

Roads allowed very quick movement for the Inca army, and shelters called tambo were built one day's distance in travelling from each other, so that an army on campaign could always be fed and rested. This can be seen in names of ruins such as Ollantay Tambo, or My Lord's Storehouse. These were set up so the Inca and his entourage would always have supplies (and possibly shelter) ready as he traveled.

Inca flag

  Banner of the Incas

Current flag of the city of Cusco, wrongly associated to the Inca.

There are 16th and 17th century chronicles and references that support the idea of a banner. However, it represented the Inca himself, not the empire.

Francisco López de Jerez^[67] wrote in 1534:

... todos venían repartidos en sus escuadras con sus banderas y capitanes que los mandan, con tanto concierto como turcos.
(... all of them came distributed into squads, with their flags and captains commanding them, as well-ordered as Turks.)

The chronicler, Bernabé Cobo, wrote:

The royal standard or banner was a small square flag, ten or twelve spans around, made of cotton or wool cloth, placed on the end of a long staff, stretched and stiff such that it did not wave in the air, and on it each king painted his arms and emblems, for each one chose different ones, though the sign of the Incas was the rainbow and two parallel snakes along the width with the tassel as a crown, which each king used to add for a badge or blazon those preferred, like a lion, an eagle and other figures.
(... el guión o estandarte real era una banderilla cuadrada y pequeña, de diez o doce palmos de ruedo, hecha de lienzo de algodón o de lana, iba puesta en el remate de una asta larga, tendida y tiesa, sin que ondease al aire, y en ella pintaba cada rey sus armas y divisas, porque cada uno las escogía diferentes, aunque las generales de los Incas eran el arco celeste y dos culebras tendidas a lo largo paralelas con la borda que le servía de corona, a las cuales solía añadir por divisa y blasón cada rey las que le parecía, como un león, un águila y otras figuras.)
-Bernabé Cobo, Historia del Nuevo Mundo (1653)

Guaman Poma's 1615 book, El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno, shows numerous line drawings of Inca flags.^[68] In his 1847 book A History of the Conquest of Peru, "William H. Prescott ... says that in the Inca army each company had its particular banner, and that the imperial standard, high above all, displayed the glittering device of the rainbow, the armorial ensign of the Incas."^[69] A 1917 world flags book says the Inca "heir-apparent ... was entitled to display the royal standard of the rainbow in his military campaigns."^[70]

In modern times the rainbow flag has been wrongly associated with the Tawantinsuyu and displayed as a symbol of Inca heritage by some groups in Peru and Bolivia. The city of Cusco also flies the Rainbow Flag, but as an official flag of the city. The Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo (2001–2006) flew the Rainbow Flag in Lima's presidential palace. However, according to Peruvian historiography, the Inca Empire never had a flag. María Rostworowski, a Peruvian historian known for her extensive and detailed publications about Peruvian Ancient Cultures and the Inca Empire, said about this: «I bet my life, the Inca never had that flag, it never existed, no chronicler mentioned it».^[71] Also, to the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio, the flag only dates to the first decades of the 20th century,^[72] and even theCongress of the Republic of Peru has determined that flag is a fake by citing the conclusion of National Academy of Peruvian History:

"The official use of the wrongly called 'Tawantinsuyu flag' is a mistake. In the Pre-Hispanic Andean World there did not exist the concept of a flag, it did not belong to their historic context".^[72]
National Academy of Peruvian History

See also: Wiphala and Rainbow flag § Andean peoples and social movements

People

Sacsayhuamán, the Inca stronghold of Cusco

Andean civilization probably began c. 9500 BP (c. 7600 BCE). Based in the highlands of Peru, an area now referred to as the punas, the ancestors of the Incas probably began as a nomadic herding people. Geographical conditions resulted in a distinctive physical development characterized by a small stature and stocky build. Men averaged 1.57 m (5'2") and women averaged 1.45 m (4'9"). Because of the high altitudes, they had unique lung developments with almost one third greater capacity than other humans. The Incas had slower heart rates, blood volume of about 2 l (four pints) more than other humans, and double the amount of hemoglobin which transfers oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body.

Archaeologists have found traces of permanent habitation as high as 5,300 m (17,400 ft) above sea level in the temperate zone of the high altiplanos. While the Conquistadors may have been a little taller, the Inca surely had the advantage of coping with the extraordinary altitude. It seems that civilizations in this area before the Inca have left no written record, and therefore the Inca seem to appear from nowhere, but the Inca were a product of the past. They borrowed architecture, ceramics, and their empire-state government from previous cultures.

In the Lake Titikaka region, Tiwanaku is recognized by Andean scholars as one of the most important precursors to the Inca Empire, flourishing as the ritual and administrative capital of a major state power for approximately 500 years.

See also

Important Incan archeological sites

• Choquequirao
• Cusco
• Llaqtapata
• Machu Picchu
• Moray
• Ollantaytambo
• Písac
• Pukara of La Compañia
• Saksaywaman
• Vilcabamba
• Vitcos

Incan-related

Historical states in present-day Argentina
[show]  before 1500
[show]  1500–1600
[show]  1600–1700
[show]  1700–1800
[show]  1800–1830
[show]  1830–present
more

• Amauta, Inca teachers
• Amazonas before the Inca Empire
• Incan aqueducts
• Inca Civil War
• Inca cuisine
• Incas in Central Chile
• Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala
• Garcilaso de la Vega (chronicler)
• Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire
• Tambo
• Tampukancha, Inca religious site
• Religion in the Inca Empire

General

• Ancient Peru
• Cultural periods of Peru
• History of Peru
• History of smallpox#Epidemics in the Americas
• Demographic history of the indigenous peoples of the Americas

See also[edit]

• Choquequirao
• Inca Trail to Machu Picchu
• Salkantay Trek, Alternative trek to Machu Picchu
• The Chilean Inca Trail
• Iperu, tourist information and assistance
• Kuelap
• Lares trek, an alternate route to that of the Inca Trail
• List of archaeoastronomical sites by country
• List of largest monoliths in the world
• Phutuq K'usi, neighboring mountain
• Tourism in Peru
• Caral
• Mysticism
• Shamanism
• Religion in the Inca Empire

In the heterogeneous Inca Empire, polytheistic religions were practiced by its different people. Most religions had common traits such as the existence of a Pachamama and Viracocha. The Incas had conquered peoples add their traditional deities to the Inca pantheon.

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1 Deities
• 2 Origin
• 3 Religious expansion
• 4 Duality
• 5 Divination
• 6 Festivals
• 7 Inca religion and socialism
• 8 See also
• 9 References
• 10 External links

Deities[edit]

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2014)

Inti or Sun of May of the flag of Argentina, 1818

Inca deities occupied the three realms:

• Hanan Pacha, the celestial realm in the sky.
• Uku Pacha, the inner earth realm.
• Cay Pacha, the outer earth realm, where humans live.

Uku Pacha was the domain of Pachamama, the Earth mother, who is universal to Andean mythologies. Kanopa was the God of Pregnancy.

Con-Tici Viracocha Pachayachachic, The first god, creator of the three realms and their inhabitants, was also the father of Inti.

Origin[edit]

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2014)

Many ancient Andean peoples traced their origins to ancestral deities. Multiple clans could share similar ancestral origins. The Inca claimed descent from the Sun and the Moon, their Father and Mother. Many clans claimed descent from early proto-humans that they emerged from local sites in nature called pacarinas.

The earliest ancestors of the Inca were known as Ayar, the first of which was Manco Cápac or Ayar Manco. Inca mythology tells of his travels, in which he and the Ayar shaped and marked the land and introduced the cultivation of maize.

Religious expansion[edit]

Religious traditions in the Andes tended to vary among different ayllus. While the Inca generally allowed or even incorporated local deities and heroes of the ayllus they conquered, they did bring their gods to those peoples by incorporating them in law such as required sacrifice. The Inca attempted to combine their deities with conquered ones in ways that raised the status of their own. One example of this is Pachamama, the goddess of earth, who was worshiped long before the rise of the Inca. In the Inca mythology Pachamama having been integrated was placed below the Moon who the Inca believed ruled over all female gods.^[1]

Duality[edit]

A theme in Inca mythology is the duality of the Cosmos. The realms were separated into the upper and lower realms, the Hanan Pacha and the Ukhu Pacha and Hurin Pacha. Hanan Pacha, the upper world, consisted of the deities of the sun, moon, stars, rainbow, and lightning while Ukhu Pacha and Hurin Pacha were the realms of Pachamama, the earth mother, and the ancestors and heroes of the Inca or other ayllus. Kay Pacha, the realm of the outer earth, where humans resided was viewed as an intermediary realm between Hanan Pacha and Ukhu Pacha. The realms were represented by the condor (upper world), puma (outer earth) andsnake (inner earth).

Huacas (sacred sites or things), were spread around the Inca Empire. Huacas were deific entities that resided in natural objects such as mountains, boulders, streams, battle fields, other meeting places, and any type of place that was connected with past Incan rulers. Huacas could also be inanimate objects such as pottery that were believed to be vessels carrying deities. Spiritual leaders in a community would use prayer and offerings to communicate with a huaca for advice or assistance. Human sacrifice was a part of Incan rituals in which they usually sacrificed a child or a slave. The Incan people thought it was an honor to die as an offering.

There are supporting the presence of sacrifice within Inca society according to Reinhard and Ceruti: "Archaeological evidence found on distant mountain summits has established that the burial of offerings was a common practice among the Incas and that human sacrifice took place at several of the sites. The excellent preservation of the bodies and other material in the cold and dry environment of the high Andes provides revealing details about the rituals that were performed at these ceremonial complexes."^[2]

Divination[edit]

The Incas also used divination. Divination was used to inform people in the city of social events, predict battle outcomes, and ask for metaphysical intervention.

Divination was an important part of Inca religion, as reflected in the following quote:

"The native elements are more obvious in the case of the sunrise divination. Apachetas, coca and the sun were major elements in pre-Conquest religion, and divination, the worship of sacred mountains and the bringing retribution against enemies were important ritual practices."^{[3]:292–314}

Festivals[edit]

Inti Raymi, Sacsayhuaman,Cuzco

Inti Raymi, Cuzco, Huacaypata, 2005

The Incan calendar had 12 months of 30 days, with each month having its own festival, and a five day feast at the end, before the new year began. The Incan year started in December, and began with Capac Raymi, the magnificent festival.^[4]

Gregorian month	Inca month	Translation
January	Camay	Fastening and Penitence
February	Hatun-pucuy	Great Ripening
March	Pacha-puchuy	Earth Ripening
April	Ayrihua or Camay Inca Raymi	Festival of the Inca
May	Aymoray qu or Hatun Cuzqui	Harvesting
June	Inti Raymi	Feast of the Sun and the great festival in honour of the sun for the harvest
July	Chahua-huarquiz, Chacra Ricuichi or Chacra Cona	The Harvest Festival
August	Yapaquis, Chacra Ayaqui or Capac Siquis	Sowing month
September	Coya Raymi and Citua	Festival of the Moon
October	K'antaray or Uma Raymi	Month of crop watching
November	Ayamarca	Festival of the dead
December	Capac Raymi	Magnificent festival

Inca religion and socialism[edit]

Inca religion is one of the main counter-arguments in the debate regarding the notion that the Inca state was an early 'Socialist Empire'.^[5]

See also[edit]

• Inca Empire
• Inca mythology
• Inca cuisine
• Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire