Incas

Civilization:

Cuzco

-lived in the 15th and 16th centuries
-Western South America 

-Center of empire is now Cuzco, Peru 

-the word Inca means King or emperor 

-Conquered most of Peru, Ecuador, and bolivia and also northern parts of CHili and Argentina 

-At first Inca was only applied for the chief then the Spanish conquistadors called the whole tribe that

- first inca (meaning chief) was from the Quichua tirbe of indians, and was thought to be a demi-god son of the god of the sun. These facts are not totally positive
-No written record of events just memory and stories passed down by word
- During spanish conquest Cuzco was the largest city in the Americas

Architecture:

-All architecture was done very well
-Done without blue prints

Examples of inca architecture:

An Incan House

Notice the bricks that they made by hand

Machu Picchu, Peru
All built before spanish conquest

-Houses made with: Body: Blocks/stone pegs Roof: Grass and bushes

-The doors were always larger so that even the tallest of incans could fit through

-the doors were also wider at the bottom than at the top: 

See it is bigger at the bottom than at the top which is like the traditional Egyptian doors

-No furniture in the houses that we know of

-Techniques were brilliant and were not adapted by any other place like europe

Engineering:
- Made bridges, roads, aqueducts, etc

- Were paving roads by the spanish conquest
- made tunnels big enough for alpacas and wagons to go through
- had runners that went on relays to get one thing from one place to the other, like sometimes runners would go to get food for people of higher class and run it back to them, like fish. Or they would run to send a message.

An Incan Road

Incan Tunnel

Incan Bridge

-The Incan's never had a writing system
-Instead of writing they had a system of ropes made from alpaca fur that was knotted to make an important message like to tell how much tax was collected, how close an enemy is, etc, it was called Quipus.

An Inca quipu

-Along the roads there were these little huts called Tambos. Tombos were for travelers to stop and rest. Namely for llama herders and soldiers.

An Inca Tambo

-Bridges were made of long thick chords called Lianas. The bridges were long suspension bridges

- The bridges unfortunately were easy to destroy, but the punishment was very severe so not a lot of people did destroy them.

An Inca Bridge (a bit sketchy isn't it?)