Ollantaytambo, Pisac, and Macchu Picchu

Yesterday I visited the two largest Inca ruins in the Sacred Valley and today I went to Macchu Picchu.  The ruins at Ollantaytambo are a short walk from my hotel and they tower over the town.  They consist of rising terraces with a structure on top of six huge stones.






Pisac is quite similar.





Europeans built cities on rivers and ports to facilitate trade and to have easy access to supplies.  The Incas built cities on top of mountains for protection.  An interesting trade-off.  But the Incas were also self-sufficient agriculturally because they terraced the mountains and were thus able to grow sufficient food.  And they developed a sophisticated system of irrigation and water drainage.  Water still flows from the original fountains in Ollantaytambo.  Finally, they built warehouses on the sides of the mountains that stayed cool from the air circulation.  Supposedly the warehouses contained enough food for five years so they could not be defeated by siege.

One common feature of all of the sites is the Temple of the Sun.  In each place there is a room designed for light to shine through certain window or to cast a particular shadow for a few seconds on the winter solstice and the summer solstice.

But of course the most interesting feature of the Inca sites is the stone construction.  Like Roman structures, the stones are placed on each other without mortar.  But the stones are not merely piled on each other; they nest together in both straight and curved lines and are linked on the inside like legos.  You cannot fit a piece of paper or a blade of grass between the stones.  The "ruins" remain in perfect condition because they cannot be knocked down, even in an earthquake.  The Spanish conquistadors destroyed the simpler structures, but even the terraces are so well designed that they remain to this day.

So the big question is:  how did the Incas build these incredibly sophisticated walls and buildings.  Mostly with manual labor.  They used stone and soft metals but did not have iron.  They also neglected to invent the wheel so did not use pulleys for lifting.

And the second big question is:  how do we know any of this?  Well, a lot is speculation.  The Incas also did not invent paper or a system of writing.  They did have a system of mathematics that involved cords and knots, but no one today knows how to "read" it.  Macchu Picchu was deserted by the Incas and never seen by the Spanish.  Our limited knowledge of the Incas comes from Spanish recordings of Inca oral history and traditions, and the Spanish had no reason to be accurate.

But who cares?  This is just one of those things that you have to see.  Here is the piece de resistance:  Macchu Picchu including one bad picture with me to prove that I was there.  I am standing in front of the Sun Gate, the entrance to Macchu Picchu from the Inca Trail.  The site is far below in the distance.

Last interesting fact about the Incas ... There are no such people.  "The Inca" was the king, so there was only one Inca at a time and only a handful during their three century dynasty.  There is a different Quechua word for the people that I can't remember.  Today the natives are called "andinos."