The Incas

The Incas were the last great pre-Columbian civilisation to evolve in South America. They have also been the most enduring. Half a millennium after their conquest and overthrow, the Incas still retain such a timeless mystique and fascination that their spirit, if not presence, to this day permeates most journeys to the Andes and Altiplano.

Settling in the Cuzco region of the Peruvian Andes, the Incas believed they had been chosen by the Sun God to bring civilisation to the world.

Believing their ruler to be a living god, the Incas combined military might with skilful diplomacy and masterly administration to forge a vast empire that spanned the length of the Andes.

The Incas demonstrated extraordinary genius in overcoming the natural challenges of their hostile, high Andean domain. They created planned towns and linked them by a huge system of roads, building innovative suspension bridges where necessary to bridge chasms over furious rivers.

The Incas carved tier upon beautiful tier of ingeniously irrigated terraces to grow crops on precipitous mountain slopes. To store food and other valuables, they maintained storehouses brimming with supplies – some so filled to bursting they outlasted the fall of the empire by several decades.

The Incas used transmigration to plant loyal subjects in areas far removed from their power base, or in parts of the empire where there were risks of uprisings.

The Incas claimed their origins at Lake Titicaca, the vast, high altitude lake that straddles the Bolivia-Peru border. According to legend, the first Inca Manco Capac and his queen Mama Ocllo rose from the waters of Lake Titicaca near the Islands of the Sun and Moon. The Incas began their sacred ministry after Manco Capac buried a gold chain and staff on the Island of the Sun.

During their supremacy, the Incas tried hard to suppress all recognition of their Andean predecessors. However, modern archaeology shows that their material and spiritual lives amalgamated several thousand years of Andean cultures that preceded them. However, what the Incas undeniably introduced to their domain were exceptional organisational skills on a level never before seen in South America.

The Incas’ meteoric rise to power brought them fabulous wealth and resources, much of which they channelled into building graceful estates for their rulers. Pisac, Ollantaytambo, Machu Picchu and Choquequirao rank amongst the most spectacular and extraordinarily engineered sites ever witnessed in South America.

Despite bequeathing such a dazzling legacy, the Incas weren’t around for very long. The height of the Inca empire lasted less than a hundred years – from around 1440 until the Spanish Conquest that began in 1532.