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Travel Trivia: How do you move an 80 ton rock down a mountain, across a river and up a mountain, 4 miles total, 600 years ago? The Incas did not have any beasts of burden to speak off. It's a long story, and the answer is different for going down hill vs. up hill, and if you're really interested, drop me a note and I'll tell you about it when I return.
Ollantaitambo. Say that 5 times fast. It was our main destination today. Peter (Frost, see yesterday's post) took us around the ancient Inca fortress. It's build on top of a hill, and oversees the valley. In and of itself, the site is very impressive. But touring it with an expert archeologist turns it into the best education you could possibly receive. We walked the site for a good 2.5hrs, and never got bored. Peter had to move us along at the end because we had other places to go, but his passion and knowledge applied onsite were simply almost to good to be true (almost, because, you know, it is true).
I'll highlight two things that I learned that are amazing. First, the Incas had a tax system. It wouldn't have made the (old) Boston Tea Party proud, because as the word "empire" suggests, this was certainly not a democracy so forget about representation. But the Incas did expect something in return for their taxes, which they paid in the form of labor to the empire. And the emperor made sure they got something in return. Food was owned by the emperor, for example, but spread across the country. Safety was something they could expect from the emperor. And there are other examples. So unlike the European system at the time, it wasn't all about making the king rich, the people were actually expecting (and getting) something in return. To some of us that's sound like a novel concept even today.
Another great discussion was around the stone walls. They leaned a little forward and had little cubbyholes in them at set intervals. This was to arm the walls against earthquakes. And the Andes have certainly seen their share of quakes! Buildings, even cities have been destroyed, maybe twice, since these walls were built, but these walls are still standing.
One really amazing observation is the masonry applied to the huge stones that form a wall. The pieces almost seem like a jigsaw puzzle. They fit seamlessly, with no mortar at all. It's just stone on stone. And none of them are perfectly flat on top. Again, a lot of theory about how they got that done, but the short of it is: send me a note if you really want to know and I'll drop by and explain it best I can. I am, after all, not an archeologist. I'm a business major, for crying out loud.
Having visited this site makes me even more excited about Machu Picchu, where we are heading tomorrow morning and spending the night. I'll tell you, this part of the trip is very different from the other parts. In the Galapagos, the animals are just there (although we have at times suspected that they radio from the ship for people to, in coordinated fashion, put animals out right before we turn the corner) and there you don't need the more touristy activities used on this part of the trip to tell the story of the history and culture of the Incas. But this part it's just as exciting, and it's only just beginning. Stay tuned!
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