Incan Roads
The Inca did not invent the wheel and neither did the Aztecs, but they built a remarkable system of roads linking the various parts of their empire. Two main roads ran from north to south. The Empire of the Incas, which was governed from Cuzco-its Capital-required that means of communication should be established between its extremities; and the roads which united it to Quito, about 500 leagues to the north-west, were the principal arteries of travel.
There is no doubt that there roads existed, but it is equally certain that their importance, as regards construction from an engineering point of view, has been much exaggerated. The descriptions of these roads have often been made by writers who have not seen them, and who have given rein to their imagination to a large extent. Some writers do not hesitate to say that the works are of "such importance and magnitude as could hardly be accomplished by the engineer of to-day," or words to that effect. They describe long and ponderous bridges over rivers, vast open cuttings through rock, and enormous extensions of paving with blocks of stone.
The road on the Andean tableland was, according to Gomara, 25 feet wide- " ... cut In some places from the living rock and In others made of stone and lime, and went in a direct line, without turning aside for hills or mountains, or even lakes, a work which all agree exceeded the pyramids of Egypt and the paved ways of the Romans, and indeed all other ancient works."
Eusebio Zapata, a Peruvian man of science and letters, wrote in 1761: " Among the most memorable things, and those which almost exceed the strength and cunning of man, are two roads which, until to-day, are found in our Peru, disclosing at certain distances the relics of their grandeur. One is found near the coast upon the llanos (plains); the other passes the regions of the interior, or sierras. These were the work of the great Huayna Capac, the twelfth Inca of Peru. He made subject all the provinces between Cuzco and Quito; and as the summits of the hills and the difficult passes had caused more trouble than the tribes he had overcome, he desired that they also should be monuments to his victories. To accomplish this he levelled mountains, opened the Cordilleran precipices, diverted rivers, filled up valleys, and overcame all obstacles that might offer difficulty in the advance. This he accomplished for a distance of 500 leagues-some say 700-in the term of a few years, and returned to Cuzco, adding a fresh laurel to his conquests in the invention of these roads."
Zapata then quotes from Pinelo, who says as to this work : " With good reason it may be affirmed that it was a marvel of the orb, worthy of eternal memory," adding that it was all done in order that the Inca might pass over the road a single time. " On the highest summits," continues Zapata, " cutting off the cones for this purpose, he formed plazas for observation, to which ascent was gained by stone steps. These were the lodging-places of the Inca, and he was able to amuse himself in watching the defiling of the numerous armies which followed him, and the hills, valleys, and rivers which spread before his view.
"A few years afterwards Huayna-Capac determined to visit the kingdom of Quito, and not desiring to pass over the same road, he ordered another to be made upon the coast plains. This was equally long, 40 feet wide, and bounded by walls and palisades. It ran through woods for great parts ; and in those places where the sand prevented the erection of walls, stakes were driven in to show the direction. Also at certain distances large buildings called tambos were erected. These were houses which offered the most comfortable accommodation, and some of them were as rich as the palaces of Cuzco."
Zapata then quotes from a writer-Gautier-as follows : " Leaving the Romans to Europe, Asia, and Africa, which are the parts of the world where they have extended their empire, and passing to America, we find there two roads which a sovereign of that country ordered to be made. These roads are in Peru; they are 500 leagues long, and go from Cuzco to Quito. They were formerly planted with trees, and defended at their sides walls and masonry, and along their whole extension ran open conduits. They were 25 paces wide, paved wherever necessary with stones so prodigious as at no time were equalled by the Romans. The stones of which they were formed were ordinarily 10 feet square. All along these were beautiful castles at distances of a day's journey apart, and which had been built expressly for the comfort of travellers."
But archeologists sought in vain for vestiges of these famous roads, on which chronicler and historian have for four centuries exhausted all their powers of description, nothing could be further from the truth than the accounts that have so long been unhesitatingly accepted concerning the ways of communication in the land of the Children of the Sun. Roads of ancient make exist in various places, but they are not after a general plan and not connected. These roads are wide trails.
Spanish roads during the reigns of Charles V and Philip II, even in the vicinity of some of the largest cities of the peninsula, were in a shocking condition, little better than bridle paths. Spanish soldiers under Pizarro found some of the Peruvian trails along which they passed quite as good as, if not better than, many of the roads with which they were familiar in the mother country. And as they were wont to exaggerate the wonders of the countries they conquered, as they also exaggerated their feats of arms, it was not for them a difficult flight of the imagination to report that the roads of the Incas were equal if not superior to the best of ancient Rome and that as monuments of human achievement they took rank with the greatest in the land of the Pharaohs.
The methods of travel and conveyance known to the Incas did not call for elaborate structures in these roads, nor uniformity of grade, level, and alignment. It is to be recollected that the inhabitants of the country in pre-hispanic times possessed no four-footed beasts of burden-except the llama : no horses, mules or oxen, and consequently no wheeled vehicles. Everything was packed on men's backs or the backs of llamas, and the Indian ever prefers to scale a height and so travel in a direct line rather than to deviate from his way by following a curving contour of easier grade. Consequently their roads were more or less straight, and steep ascents were overcome by steps formed of slabs of stone, rough from the quarries. I have followed long stretches of track which have been defined simply by lines of stones or large pebbles placed at both sides, especially over sandy areas; but this called for no particular skill. Their roads often were obliged to follow along steep mountain-slopes, and there they were terraced on the lower sides with rough slabs and small blocks of stone built up as retaining walls, and put together with some skill, but not calling for any particular comment.
There was, then, no necessity for great and levelled roads, nor for paving them with vast blocks of stone, except where they crossed the swamps of the punas; and here there were used, and indeed are still used, large slabs of stone, or lozas, taken from the nearest stratified hill. As for the cutting-off of the cones of hills to make plazas, or places of observation, this was undoubtedly done to a large extent. Bridges they built, which displayed considerable skill, but which were, of course, inferior to the most commonplace of modern engineering structures of a like nature. They built stone bridges, employing single long slabs to span from pier to pier, some of which were of considerable length.
Truth to tell, such a road as Gomara described would to-day be considered a more difficult and more costly undertaking than the section of the great Pan American Railroad stretching from the northern frontier of Ecuador to the southern boundary of Bolivia; and if not an absolutely impossible task, it would bankrupt ten times over all the Republics on the west coast of South America. Nevertheless for four centuries the world credited the accounts of the early chroniclers about the marvels and magnificence of roads which could in the very nature of things never have had any existence outside of their very fertile imaginations and those of the Munchausen companions of the Conquistadores.
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