New meets old
Peru is full of the traces of its pre-hispanic past. Francisco Pizarro found a land with a population of 6 or 7 million. It was reduced to about 1.8 million within 50 years of the conquest. The rural population is now 7 million again, for the first time exceeding the density that is was in Inca times and the Quechua-speaking Indians now form the majority of the population.
On any journey in the Andes you can find the ruins of Inca and earlier constructions. The Inca royal road – the qhapaq ñan – ran for 3,100 miles through the mountains, from Los Pastos in Colombia to Menoza in Argentina. Much of it is still there to be followed.
The pre-Inca city walled of Marcahuamachuco, above Huamachuco in northern Peru, was built around 800 BC. It occupies the whole summit of the hill – a circumference of about 5.6 km. This is about the same area as was enclosed by the wall of Philippe Auguste around Paris in 1200, when Paris was one of the largest cities in Europe. Marcahuamachuco was actually protected by two concentric walls, making a total wall length of over 11 km. (My guide said 19 km, but that seems an exaggeration).
The ruins of Marcahuamachuco on the eastern side overlooking the Rio Grande, a tributary of the Marañon. The spectacular setting dominated this route to the Amazon lowlands.
South from the heights of Marcahuamachuco, the town of Huamachuco lies in the valley below. On the hill to the left is the El Toro open-cast gold mine. This region (La Libertad) is the most important for gold mining in Peru and there are a number of vast concessions. Gold brought the conquistadores to Peru, and has been a major export ever since, as well as a source of conflict – now with farmers over environmental degradation. Gold was not used by the pre-Inca inhabitants of Marcahuamachuco.
Huagango in the Conchucos region. One of those impossible, knife-edge locations where the Incas built. It lies to the side of the Royal Inca road near a tambo (way-station) and may have been for storing food and other supplies.
Inca road in the Conchucos region. A hand-made masterpiece of engineering but now damaged, particularly by horses and mules. Llamas have soft feet and caused little damage, but can carry only 60-70 lbs and are not as useful for transport.
Relay runners conveyed official messages along the roads at great speed. Messages from the vicinity of Lima took three days to reach the Inca capital at Cusco – not much longer than my first bus journey there.
A modern road cuts through the Inca road on a gentler gradient. On the flatter land the original Inca road is often wiped out completely.
South of Huamachuco the Inca road snakes over the highest passes
… and on to the next pass
500 years of use have not erased the details of the road’s construction despite its mortarless fragility.
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