The Inca Empire was very large. It stretched from Columbia to Northern Chile. The time period was from 1400 to 1550 when Francisco Pizzaro conquered them. The Inca was just the king and not the people but the Spanish called them Inca.
The Incas had many gods they worshiped. The Inca earth god was Pachamama, Earth-Mother. They would leave offerings of coca leaves to the gods. Occasionally they would sacrifice kids. When someone important dies they are mummified and put in caves to return to Pachamama.
They built houses, temples and storehouses out of sandstone, andesite, and granite. They built temples to honor the sun and moon. The bricks of temples fit together perfectly and did not need mortar but the other style Incas used for houses did use mortar. The sun temple windows were lined up with the sunrise some times to honor the sun god.
The Incas spoke Quechua and Aymara. The Incas were mostly vegetarian by necessity. The Incas kept track of stuff with knots in something called a Quipu. When the Incas needed to travel they hiked the Inca trail and used llamas to carry things.
When we went to Machu Picchu we saw viscachas! They are half squirrel, half bunny creatures. They were so cute!
I really liked Machu Picchu and learned a lot about Incas.
3 Responses
I really enjoy that you often include the native animals in your posts. Some of them I am familiar with but quite a few I have never heard of and certainly have never seen! All the different areas that mummified their dead and practiced head hunting and human sacrifice is interesting but rather macabre. I’m glad that I wasn’t around in those days! 😳
You’ve had some pretty creepy pictures of mummies and shrunken heads, Syd. You are seeing a culture that is far removed from our home experience. I would like to learn more about the Incas knot stories. It appears that they domesticated animals for their use much like we did horses. I hope that you bring back more pictures and memories to share with those of us who will never experience what you have in South America.
You spot the coolest things! It will be interesting in a few years to see what you remember about locations and compare it with what Audrey remembers – it should paint pretty complete pictures of what was there! Great reporting – keep it coming!