Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ENTER THE INCAS
According to Inca lore, their civilization was born when Manco Cápac and his sister Mama
Ocllo, children of the sun, emerged from Lake Titicaca to establish a civilization in the
Cuzco Valley. Whether Manco Cápac was a historical figure is up for debate, but what is
certain is that the Inca civilization was established in the area of Cuzco at some point in the
12th century. The reign of the first several
incas
(kings) is largely unremarkable - and for a
couple of centuries, they remained a small, regional state.
Expansion took off in the early 15th century, when the ninth king, Inca Yupanqui, defen-
ded Cuzco - against incredible odds - from the invading Chanka people to the north. After
the victory, he took on the boastful new name of 'Pachacutec' ('Transformer of the Earth')
and spent the next 25 years bagging much of the Andes. Under his reign, the Incas grew
from a regional fiefdom in the Cuzco Valley into a broad empire of about 10 million people
known as Tawantinsuyo (Land of Four Quarters). The kingdom covered most of modern
Peru, in addition to pieces of Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile. All of this was made more re-
markable by the fact that the Incas, as an ethnicity, never numbered more than about
100,000.
Pachacutec allegedly gave Cuzco its layout in the form of a puma and built fabulous
stone monuments in honor of Inca victories, including Sacsaywamán (
Click here
)
, the
temple-fortress at Ollantaytambo (
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) and possibly Machu Picchu (
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).
He also improved the network of roads that connected the empire, further developed terrace
agricultural systems and made Quechua the lingua franca.
Most Influen-
tial Writers
» El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega,
chronicler
» Ricardo Palma, folklorist
» Abraham Valdelomar, essay-
ist
» César Vallejo, poet
» José Carlos Mariategui,
political theorist
» Mario Vargas Llosa, novelist
