Cusco: the leftover of the Incan Capital

The air in Cusco was extremely dry, at least when we were there, that, plus the 11000 feet (3360 meters) altitude, the town was a harsh place to breathe for people del sea level like us. But what can I say? One has to brave the thin air for the beauty of that place. As the old Inca capital, it is the getaway to the Incan heartland. Without much distraction of tress or plants, the old town glistened in orange tiles on roof, sort of naked, hugging the equally naked mountain-scape. Many of these buildings were constructed on the Inca stone foundation dated back to the 16th century. Spaniards were surely good at destroying indigenous culture yet they were also quite practical in terms of recycling. Incans were incredible builders. They perfectly cut and fit the rocks together without mortar, some of the rocks weight tons. The Incan wall withstood earthquakes for the past 500 yrs while the spanish wall, mocked as "incapable", fell and tumbled.

The truth is that Inca is the most well-known historical and cultural export of Peru, which has naturally overshadowed a 5000 yr civilization before it. There was Moche, there was Chimu, there was Nazca, but only after we visited the two archaeological museos in Cusco and later the third in Lima, did we gained a panoramic view of the rich history of the country and its colorful ancient dwellers. In Cusco, some amazing textile, which appeared contemporary, complex and sophisticated, was dated back to over 1000 yrs; And in Lima, the famed Chavin Estela Raimondi in The National Museum of the Archaeology, Anthropology was carved in 1000 BC.

Back in Cusco, we climbed up the mountain at the edge of the town as a warm-up for the Inca Trail. Where we headed was a mysterious ruin called Sacsayhuman. Huge blocks of stones were set into impressive wall foundation. Again, no mortar. But one cannot even insert a blade between the two fitting stones. That's how extraordinary the Incan builders were. Many theories hovered over the functions of the place, yet no one knows exactly what the place was for. As a matter of fact, no one knows how Incan emperor ran his massive country. What was the political and administrative structures. No one knows if there was a written language of Quechua, spoken by Incans, or how one interprets the knotted "messenger's ropes", a device that was believed to encode all the necessary information back then, like a letter.

Sometimes it seems hard to understand how could a significant culture was completely erased from the earth without leaving any residual knowledge. Our guide shed some light on this. Obviously the Spaniards systematically killed all the persons with power who also happened to be the guardians of the knowledge. When those people got slaughtered, the knowledge died with them. So technically, that was how such a long civilization had such a quick death. Through the interaction with many Quechua people we met in Peru, we sensed an anguish that was deeply rooted in the lost of their identity, an anguish of not knowing where they were from. That pain, I think, is harder to bear nowadays when everyone is searching for some sort of identity, whatever it may be.