The Incas are a small South American tribe that managed to rise to the very pinnacle of power and create a powerful empire that conquered many peoples and changed the face of the Andes.

They managed to transform themselves from a small, unknown tribe from the Cuzco Valley into the rulers of the Andes. And create the great Inca Empire, built on the most accurate accounting of food and which amazed the newcomers from Europe with grandiose structures.

The Inca Empire became the largest state in terms of area and population in South America in the 11th-16th centuries. The territory of their empire stretched from present-day Pasto in Colombia to the Maule River in Chile and included the territories of present-day Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and parts of Chile, Argentina and Colombia.

The Incas called their empire Tawantinsuyu (four connected cardinal directions). This name came from the fact that four roads left the Cuzco valley in different directions, and each, regardless of its length, bore the name of the part of the empire to which it led.

The ruler of these vast territories was the Inca, as the Indians called their ruler. Literally, “Inca” means “ruler”, “overlord”, “king”. And the word “Inca” itself was an integral part of the name of the leader of the empire. Over time, “Inca” began to be called not only the ruler of the empire, but also other representatives of the ruling class. And with the advent of the conquerors, the concept of “Inca” or “Inca” spread to the entire tribe of Indians that inhabited the Tawantinsuyu empire.

Education Great Empire Inc.

For a long time it was believed that the great Inca Empire was created by a single genius. The brilliant Pachacutec Inca Yupanqui, the first ruler of the Incas, a sort of local Alexander the Great, was supposed to have transformed a handful of adobe huts into a powerful empire in the span of a single generation in the early 15th century.

But University of Chicago archaeologist Brian Bauer is confident that the roots of the Inca dynasty go back deeper than the 15th century. Arriving in Peru in 1980, together with his colleague R. Alan Covey, now an archaeologist at the University of Dallas, and a team of Peruvian assistants, he combed the steep mountain slopes up and down for four field seasons - and eventually discovered thousands of unknown monuments Inca culture. It became obvious: the Inca state arose between 1200 and 1300. And what gave them power was... climate change. The stronger neighboring tribes gradually lost their power by the beginning of the 12th century. This was partly due to drought, which raged in the Andes for more than a hundred years and led to famine and unrest.

In all corners of the Peruvian Highlands, skirmishes took place over meager supplies of water and food. Crowds of refugees rushed to the mountains because... only on the cold, windswept peaks of the Andes was it possible to hide from raids.

But the Incas in the fertile valley of Cusco had no shortage of sources of water - and the farmers from the Inca tribe did not move. While less fortunate neighbors exterminated each other, prosperous Inca villages united in small state, capable of protecting itself from enemy attacks. And between 1150 and 1300, when the climate in the Andes warmed significantly, the Incas from Cusco were able to take advantage of this warming.

As temperatures rose, they gradually climbed the mountain slopes 250–300 meters, constructing multi-tiered agricultural terraces to protect soils from erosion, irrigating fields using canals indicating a high level of engineering, and harvesting record corn harvests. The surplus of harvests allowed the Incas to “free up large numbers of people for other activities, such as building roads or maintaining a large army.” And then the day came when the Inca was able to call up more warriors and provide weapons and food for a larger army than any other of the neighboring leaders.

Having created a regular army, the Inca rulers began to look at other people's lands and wealth. They began to enter into dynastic alliances with the leaders of neighboring tribes and lavish gifts on new allies. When conquering neighboring tribes, the Incas, on the one hand, used their strong and numerous army, and on the other hand, attracted the elite of the conquered regions. Before taking military action, the Incas three times invited the rulers of the conquered region to voluntarily join their empire. If the neighbors were not persuaded by diplomacy, they were pacified by force. And gradually a powerful state was formed with its capital - the sacred city of Cusco, founded at an altitude of 3416 meters above sea level, in a deep valley between two mountain ranges.

Inspired by the success of their conquests, the Inca rulers turned their gaze further - to the rich lands in the southeast, where at an altitude of 3840 m there was a vast plateau with Lake Titicaca. In the 15th century, one of the greatest Inca rulers, Pachacutec Inca Yupanqui, planned a military campaign to the south.

The arrogant rulers of the lakeside states had almost 400 thousand subjects. Their abundant land beckoned. The mountain slopes were riddled with veins of gold and silver, and herds of alpacas and llamas grazed in the lush green meadows. Military successes in the Andes largely depended on them: the llama, the only animal on the entire continent, could carry a load weighing 30 kilograms on its back. In addition, llamas, as well as alpacas, provide meat, leather and wool. Military rations, uniforms, army movement - everything depended on the availability of lamas. And if the Inca ruler had not managed to conquer the rulers who owned these herds, he would have had to wait with trepidation for the day when he himself would have to surrender to the mercy of the winner.

Pachacutec subjugated one southern ruler after another, increasingly expanding the borders of his empire, which at the peak of its existence became one of the largest states on Earth. The number of subjects of the Inca Empire reached, according to various sources, from 5-6 to 12 million people.

However, military victories were only the first step on the path to greatness. If the empire of Alexander the Great collapsed immediately after his death, the legacy of the Inca ruler Pachacutec-Inca-Yupanqui turned out to be much more tenacious. Because here, after the soldiers, officials and builders got down to business.

Wise rule of the Incas.

When an uprising broke out in any of the provinces, the Inca rulers arranged the resettlement of peoples: they diluted local population loyal subjects, and the disobedient were taken closer to the capital. Residents of remote villages surrounded by high walls were relocated to new cities, which were located along roads built by the Incas - the roads ensured the rapid movement of troops. The Inca governors ordered the construction of roadside warehouses for these troops, and their subjects had to fill the warehouses with provisions and other necessary supplies. Everything was foreseen, and the chances of an uprising became negligible. The Incas were organizational geniuses.

The Andean civilization reached its peak. Engineers turned disparate groups of roads into a single system that connected all corners of the empire. The peasants created irrigation canals, laid out high-mountain agricultural terraces, where they grew about seven dozen different crops, and stocked enough food in storage facilities to last from three to seven years. Officials have mastered inventory to perfection. They knew the contents of all the vaults across the vast empire, keeping records using an Andean form of computer code - bundles of multi-colored threads with a combination of knots called quipus. Stonemasons erected masterpieces of architecture.

Huayna Capac, dead ruler of the Incas.

Around 1493, a new Inca ruler, Huayna Capac, ascended the throne. At that time, it seemed that the Inca dynasty could control everything in the world. During the construction of the new capital in Ecuador, workers who did not know wheels dragged stone blocks from the Cusco Valley to a distance of 1.6 thousand kilometers along a mountain road. For these works, Huayna Capac rounded up more than 4.5 thousand rebellious subjects.

And a small army of men and women changed nature in a way that was amazing at that time. When creating the royal residence of Huayna Capaca (an area the size of seven football fields), workers moved the bed of the Urubamba River to southern part valleys, leveled hills and drained swamps to plant corn, cotton, peanuts and chili peppers. In the center of the “new land”, Huayna Capac’s country palace, Quispiguanca, was built from stones and bricks.

In spacious palaces, surrounded by parks, cultivated fields and gardens, Huayna-Capac received guests and played games of chance with those close to him. Sometimes he went hunting. To do this, there was no need to travel outside the estate: the ruler had at his disposal a secluded hunting lodge and a forest, where deer and other wild animals were found in abundance.

Around 1527, Huayna Capac died in Ecuador from some mysterious illness - but did not lose his power. Those close to him mummified his body, transported it back to Cuzco, and members of the royal family often visited the deceased monarch, asking him for advice on important issues and listening to the answers that were uttered by the oracle sitting next to him. And after his death, Huayna Capac remained the owner of Quispiguanca and the estate: the entire harvest from the local fields was to be used to maintain his mummy, servants, wives and descendants in luxury for all eternity.

Since the traditions of inheritance were so strange that all the palaces remained the property of the rulers even after their death, it is not surprising that each Inca, upon ascending the throne, built a new city palace and a new country residence for himself and his descendants. To date, archaeologists and historians have discovered the ruins of a dozen royal residences built by at least six rulers.

Conquest of the Incas by the Spaniards.

In 1532, foreign conquerors led by Francisco Pizarro landed on the coast of modern Peru. Who arrived with 200 foot soldiers, clad in steel armor and armed with deadly firearms and only 27 horses. However, on the way, his army is replenished by those dissatisfied with the rule of the Incas. The Incas fiercely fight the conquerors, but the empire is weakened by internal turmoil and internecine war, in addition, a large number of Inca warriors die from smallpox and measles brought by the Spaniards.

The Spaniards reached Cajamarca, the northern city of the Incas, where they captured the ruler Atahualpa. Eight months later they executed their royal captive, and their leader, Francisco Pizarro, installed a puppet on the throne - the young prince of Manco Inca Yupanqui.

The Inca capital, Cusco, was conquered by the Spaniards in 1536. Over the next few months, the Spanish conquerors appropriated Cuzco's palaces and vast country estates and took girls from the royal family as wives and mistresses. The angry Manco-Inca-Yupanqui rebelled and in 1536 tried to drive out the foreigners from his lands. When his army was defeated, he and a small number of followers fled to the mountainous region of Vilcabamba, where Incan rule continued for about 30 years.

In 1572, the last Inca ruler, Tupac Amaru, was beheaded. This marked the end of the Tawantinsuyu empire. The state was plundered, the Inca culture was destroyed. The vast network of Incan roads, vaults, temples and palaces gradually fell into disrepair.

The Incas, or more precisely, the Inca, are an Indian tribe belonging to the Quechua language family. The tribe appeared in the 11th century, gaining a foothold in the territory of modern Peru. In the 15th century The Incas created the state of Tawantinsuyu and began to occupy a dominant position in it. This is how one of the ancient civilizations arose South America. The Inca civilization was one of the most highly developed; Their household items and decorations amaze with their unsurpassed beauty, and the people themselves – with their hard work, talent, courage and energy.

The Inca's possessions covered more than 4000 km 2. The empire stretched across the Andean mountains, and its central part was located on the second highest (after the Himalayas) mountain peak of the Andes. The territories of modern Ecuador and Peru, Northwestern Argentina and part of Bolivia at that distant time were part of one of the great empires of the world - the Inca Empire. The number of peoples inhabiting Tawantinsuyu reached 10 million people - that's almost 100 ethnic groups.

From archaeological research it is known that on the Pacific coast of modern Peru, and in the mountainous areas (from Ecuador to Lake Titicaca in South America), various cultures appeared, developed and died out. The Incas themselves were originally a pastoral tribe that wandered, moving from Lake Titicaca to the north. On their way (not far from the northern borders of Bolivia) they found monumental structures and a small group of impoverished people.

Some archaeological finds indicate that before the 6th century. n. e. A new culture appeared in Tiahuanaco, which reached its peak in the 7th century. Apparently, the coastal cultures of Peru also contributed to its development. For about 3 centuries, the culture of Tiawanaku was the most highly developed of all that existed at that time on the American continent. But then its decline occurred, the reasons for which are still not clear. Various hypotheses have been put forward regarding this: a strong earthquake, an epidemic, the expansion of other tribes, etc.

The Incas took over a significant part cultural heritage Tiahuanaco, in particular, has magnificent architecture. So, about 20 km north of Lake Titicaca there is a high cliff, and under it is a monumental semblance of a pyramid. In addition, ancient sculptors recreated almost the entire animal world Andes and Amazon Valley. Archaeologists have found a sculptural figure of a shaman holding in his hand the severed head of a wild beast; statues of jaguars and fantastic beasts, such as a lizard with the head of a puma.

Stopping in the Cusco Valley, the Incas founded a settlement here, which later became the capital of their empire. The settlement was founded by the Inca leader Manco Capac. He also became the first ruler. His title was called "Sapa Inca", and all the inhabitants of this territory began to call themselves Incas.

According to the beliefs of the Incas, the sun god Inti destined for them, his children, the great mission of turning representatives of semi-wild tribes into cultural (for their time) people. The ruler of Pachacuti especially succeeded in this. He was a fairly ambitious man, and luck was with him. Pachacuti, in addition to annexing many tribes to the empire, also spread the Inca religion and culture among them.

An ancient Indian legend tells that on two islands - Copti and Titicaca - the son of the sun, Inca Manca Capac, and the daughter of the moon, his sister Mama Oklo, were born. Their christening took place, and at it the sun god gave the brother and sister each a golden staff and sent them to the north. Having reached the first valley, the Inca tried the ground with his staff, but came across a stone. He went further and continued to stick the staff into the soil until it went deep into it. This happened in the Cusco Valley. Then the Inca called to him shepherds from the northern environs, and his sister went south and brought the rest. Together they built main city empire, and in its very center a temple of the Sun was erected.

The next ruler, Tona Inca Yupanca, continued the work begun by Pachacuti, and as a result, one of the great civilizations appeared - the Inca Empire. Each of its new rulers adhered to a well-thought-out and effective system of government. When new lands were annexed to the empire, the rulers left the conquered peoples with their leaders, local languages and the opportunity to worship their gods. There was only one requirement: it was necessary to know the official language of Quechua, which was spoken only in Cusco. The Inca Empire was, perhaps, the only one in which relations between the peoples who inhabited it were built not on fear and violence, but on trust and cooperation.

When the Inca Empire reached its height and power, the population of its main city of Cusco numbered about 20,000 people. The sacred place of Cusco was the main square, or rather its center. The Incas brought soil from all over the empire, symbolically mixed it and placed it in the center of the square. This act confirmed the equality and unity of all inhabitants of the vast empire. The highest achievement of both Incan architecture and fine art was the Temple of the Sun. Built of stone, it had gilded walls and a roof covered with gold slabs, and a spacious courtyard into which five main chapels opened. The first was the chapel of the sun god. Its front side was decorated with a huge golden disk, personifying the supreme deity and his governors on earth - the rulers of the Incas. The ceiling and walls were lined with pure gold. The nearby chapel was dedicated to the moon; accordingly, all its decoration was made of silver. The chapel intended for the worship of the stars was also made of silver, only metal was supplemented here precious stones. And finally, the fourth and fifth chapels were dedicated to the rainbow and lightning and were decorated with corresponding symbols.

The Incas were very skilled builders. Until now, the technology of their masons remains a sealed secret. In the same temple of the Sun, for example, slabs, not fastened with lime and laid one on top of the other, form high sloping walls. In the courtyard of the temple, a stone was found with very smooth walls and cylindrical holes drilled in it with a diameter of about 6 cm. This is all the more surprising considering that the Incas were not familiar with either steel or iron, i.e. those metals without which life is impossible. the profession of a modern mason.

There are practically no gaps between the stones from which the temples are built. Neither a needle nor the thinnest piece of paper can pass between them. The ability of the Incas to give stones complex geometric shapes is also striking. Thus, individual stones (their front part) formed polygons with twelve sides.

Other buildings in Cusco were just as perfect as the Temple of the Sun. However, there is a version, supported by archaeological research, that construction skills was borrowed by the Incas from their predecessors. For example, ritual and public buildings in the city of Tiahuanaco, erected (as chemical analysis showed) in the 1st century. n. e., are distinguished by monolithic masonry. Even though the individual blocks weighed about 100 tons, they were cut and fitted with amazing precision.

One of the legends tells that Tiahuanaco was built either by gods or giants. The most impressive is the Gate of the Sun, made from a single stone block. The lintel of the gate is decorated with the figure of an unknown deity (which, however, can be found in other areas of the Andes) with large round and bulging eyes and a halo of snakes and cat heads. The deity holds staffs in his hands, on the top of one of them is the head of a condor.

In addition to the stonemasons of Tiawanaku, the builders who lived in the territory of Huari were unsurpassed masters of their craft. Perhaps they were the closest predecessors of the Incas in terms of urban planning. Having in their arsenal only cobblestones and a bronze crowbar, they erected buildings that have survived to this day, having withstood earthquakes more than once.

At Wari, stones were made of the same size, but their upper and lower surfaces were different. So, the upper surface was slightly concave, and the lower, on the contrary, convex. And when the stones were stacked on top of each other, they held very firmly due to the fact that the upper stone entered the cavity of the lower one with its convex back surface. Thus, by order of Pachacuti, palaces and temples were built in Cuzco. They were erected on the site of the demolished huts of the previous settlement.

The social structure of the Inca Empire was based on the principle of hierarchy. Each new ruler declared that he reigned by divine right, since he was a descendant of the sun god. The power of the Incas was hereditary. The Inca ruler, or emperor, had a harem of about a hundred concubines, but the empress - the coya - was chosen from among the ruler's sisters. In turn, the emperor chose his heir from the children and grandchildren of the Koyas.

In a number of cases, problems arose with inheritance. So, Pachacuti’s grandson, Huayna Capac, died of smallpox, without even officially becoming an heir. His own heir, Ninan Kuyuchi, also could not survive the epidemic. The survivors of Huascar and Atahualpa plunged the country into the abyss of civil war, which marked the beginning of the decline of the empire. As for the transfer of inheritance in everyday life, a man inherited from his father, and a woman inherited from her mother. Interestingly, succession to the throne did not automatically include inheritance of wealth. In this regard, the new emperor almost immediately set out on a campaign to conquer new lands and gain wealth.

For greater efficiency in government, all families in the Inca Empire were divided into groups consisting of ten families. Each of them chose a head, who reported to the heads of the groups, which already consisted of fifty families. Thus, groups appeared that included one hundred, five hundred or more families (their number could reach ten thousand). This system made it possible to effectively collect taxes, and in kind. These included food, various tools, weapons, clothing and shoes, and much more. All this was sent to warehouses (kamkas), and every day widows, orphans, sick and disabled citizens received everything they needed. Such an exchange (not only of knowledge and culture, but also of resources) allowed residents to feel protected and not be afraid of natural disasters.

A service of special inspectors was created to oversee the actions of local officials. No one knew where and when they would appear (these were people from among the noble Incas) to check the work local authorities. They were called tokoy-rikok, which translated means “those who see everything.”

The Incas did not have a written language; instead they used a quipu (literally “knot”) - a system of multi-colored laces with knots. All the necessary information was recorded in the bundles: the number of inhabitants of the empire (able-bodied and elderly), the amount of food (down to each grain barn) and much more. Woolen laces of different colors expressed different concepts. For example, red meant war or a warrior, white meant peace or silver, green meant corn, and yellow meant gold. One knot represented the number ten, two knots next to it represented twenty. The profession of the creators of the quipu (these people were called quipucamayocs) was very important in the Inca Empire, because the reliability of the entire state machine depended on the correctness of the recording. Kipukamajoki combined the qualities of an artist, a logistician and an accountant. How important the preservation and interpretation of statistical data was for the Incas is evidenced by the fact that the creators of the quipu enjoyed privileges, in particular they did not pay taxes, but at the same time they had a huge responsibility, since a mistake they made would lead to failure in work and provided for the death penalty as punishment.

Researchers have shown that the colored knots gradually developed into a complex three-dimensional writing system that resembled Braille for the blind. It turned out that the pile contains more than one and a half thousand individual characters. This is twice as much as the Egyptians and Mayans, and slightly more than the Sumerian-Babylonian writing. Mathematical research has shown that the quipu uses a binary system, reminiscent of the basis of a computer language.

The Incas created a whole network of roads with a total length of more than 240,000 km, which connected the most remote or inaccessible areas of the country. The mountain road through the Andes from Cusco to the current capital of Ecuador, Quito, is especially impressive. On wide highways, stations (tambo) were located at certain distances so that courier runners (chaski) could rest and refresh themselves. Hardy people were chosen for this in their youth. They had to be able to run quickly in the thin air of the highlands. The constant attributes of the couriers were headdresses with flowing feathers and twisted seashell. Chaska, approaching the place where the next courier was waiting for him, blew into the conch and ran for a while next to his replacement, who memorized the contents of the message. This is how this kind of relay race took place.

The Incas showed themselves to be unsurpassed masters in creating a system of irrigation canals. It had no equal in terms of length and efficiency. The Incan irrigation structures survived centuries. It should be noted that the Incas adopted the principles of field irrigation from the Chimuor people they conquered.

The city of Chan Chan, the capital of the kingdom of Chimuor, was one of the most beautiful in South America. It was home to more than 36,000 inhabitants. Chimuora artisans made gold items that can be recognized as genuine works of art. When the Incas annexed Chimuor to their empire, they adopted to a large extent the skill and talent of this people and, to a certain extent, became disciples of their subjects.

The Inca fields were terrace-like systems, which were fortified on the mountain slopes with stone bastions. The earth belonged to the Sun, the people and the emperor. A family Inca could claim a personal plot (tupa). A plot that belonged to the sun god could be allocated to a resident of the empire if he had an addition to his family. The land could not be sold; it was bequeathed only to children. The inhabitants of the empire cultivated the fields together. First of all, the lands of the sun god were subject to cultivation, then the lands of the poor, disabled, widows and orphans, then their own, and last but not least, the princely and royal allotments. In the same sequence, the harvest was collected and poured into public barns, which were divided into common ones and those belonging to the sun god. From the latter, bread was distributed to the army, officials and people performing public works. The part of the harvest that belonged to the sun god was associated with the costs of priestesses and priests. If the year was poor, the reserves of the sun god were used.

The common people did not have livestock; this was the privilege of the king and God. The Incas used llamas and alpacas as pack animals. The state itself took care of the animals. Thus, the Inca royal dynasty, like that of the ancient Egyptians and Chinese, was closely associated with agriculture.

The Incas were good doctors. They achieved especially great success in surgery, in particular in such a field as neurosurgery. During archaeological excavations in Peru, surgical instruments were found that were intended for trephination, that is, for opening the skull.

In order for the inhabitants of the empire to feel protected from natural disasters, famine and other extreme situations, the rulers ordered them to lead a regulated lifestyle. This primarily meant that no one spent time in idleness, everyone worked for the good of the empire. Only elderly people over 50 years of age were exempt from taxation and labor service. However, they also participated in community service to the best of your ability. For example, they looked after children, cooked food, prepared firewood, or did some other simple work.

The Incas were extremely clean people. This trait was manifested in everything, from the cleanliness of the cities themselves to the housing of every inhabitant of the empire.

The Incas had a special inspection that checked whether the owner of the house complied with the established standard of cleanliness. On a certain day an inspection was scheduled, and at that time the reed mat over the front door had to be raised. The inspector watched the woman prepare food, clean the house, do laundry and do any other work. The mistress of the house, who failed (in the opinion of the inspector) with her duties, was punished. In front of everyone watching, she had to eat all the dirt swept out of the house, and the owner had to drink the dirty water left after bathing all family members.

The Incas did not have divorces; all marriages they entered into were considered lifelong. This applied to both the nobility and the common people. The Incas did not have prisons, since any crime (violence, theft, robbery and other serious deviation from social norms) was immediately punishable by death.

The aristocratic part of society wore tunics: for women they were to the toes, for men they were to the knees. The tunic was tied at the waist with a belt with a heraldic sign. Sometimes the belt was replaced by a robe attached with pins. One of the main decorations of the Incas were large silver or gold discs that were worn in the earlobes. Their considerable weight pulled down the ears significantly.

The Incas had a school in which not only the sons of the nobility studied, but also the young children of the rulers of the conquered kingdoms. She was in Cusco. Students learned oratory, military affairs, religion, and some sciences (for example, history, geometry). The training ended with exams, in which sixteen-year-old young people were subjected to quite difficult tests, demonstrating their knowledge, strength, dexterity and courage.

The exams lasted about thirty days. They took place in open areas, and everyone could watch their progress. The test involved a six-day fast (those fasting were allowed to consume only water and herbs), followed by a 7.2 km race. The next test consisted of the ability to stand motionless while the fencer inflicted thrusts and cuts on the subjects. In addition, there was a more severe test of strength, when strong blows were inflicted on their arms and legs with whips made of vines. These actions tested the graduates' ability to withstand any pain. Anyone who could not stand it, showing signs of suffering through facial expressions or gestures, was immediately expelled. There were often cases of serious injury and even death during the exams.

The culmination of the tests was the knighting of former students. The Inca ruler personally pierced the earlobes of the young men who knelt before him with a golden needle. Having received gold discs as signs of caste, young people (both the sons of the Incas and the sons of vassals - curacs) became representatives of the ruling class.

Girls were trained separately, this happened in monasteries. Special people ensured that the number of such girls in the empire reached a certain figure - no less than 15,000. Agents traveled to all regions of the country and, paying attention to the girl’s origin, her abilities and beauty, selected those suitable for training. Elderly mentors (mamakona) taught the pupils. Particular attention in the learning process was paid to the ability to dye fabrics and weave, since it was the girls who made thin fabrics (cumbi) from alpaca wool. These fabrics were used to make clothes for the emperor and his khoya.

Education at the monastery lasted 3 years, after which the emperor himself chose wives for himself and his nobles from among the pupils. Those of the girls who were not chosen became priestesses. They lived like noble ladies in houses on main square near the Coraxang Temple in Cuzco and were universally respected.

The Incas attached great importance to holidays. First of all, during these days the connection between the people and the emperor was strengthened. In addition, during such events, people got rid of accumulated emotions, and finally the holiday was presented to the people as a gift for their hard work and loyalty to the emperor.

The ruler himself presided over the holiday. Firstly, his responsibilities included providing all participants with food and drinks; secondly, the program included musical performances, dances, exhibition fights, religious events - all this took place under his patronage.

One of the indispensable components of the holiday was the reading of poems in different genres. These were religious poetry, love ballads (usually about unrequited love), and heroic tales (about exploits). All this was passed on from mouth to mouth, supplemented by vivid descriptions of the valleys, mountain peaks and gorges. No less interesting was the musical performance, which consisted of dances (usually of a ritual nature), which were accompanied by mournful monotonous chants.

According to some sources, the Incas had about forty different dances. One of the most spectacular was the so-called jumping dance. It was performed by masked men, holding animal skins in their hands.

Inca music stood out primarily for its rhythmic diversity and richness. Hence they have a considerable number of different percussion instruments. These are large and small drums, as well as many flutes, representing a group of wind instruments. Flutes were made from animal bones or reeds, some were made from clay or condor feathers.

Particularly popular was the quena flute, carved from reeds and having eight finger holes. The musician alternately opened and closed them during the performance. In addition, the Incas often played flutes tied together.

In addition to flutes, the favorite instrument of the Incas was trumpets. There were even more of them than flutes, and they were made from wood, hollowed out gourds and sea shells.

Every month the Incas held three festivals. The most important of them took place in December - the first month of the rainy season. It was called kopak raymi, i.e. “big holiday”. During it (it was celebrated in Cusco), a rite of passage took place to initiate young men into men. The holiday was so seriously and strictly revered that only the Incas remained in Cuzco, and everyone else (not the Incas) left the capital at this time. At the end of the ceremony, they returned to the city again and confirmed their loyalty to the throne through the rite of communion.

To appease the gods, the Incas made human sacrifices. As a rule, these were children. The victim was then mummified; researchers managed to find more than four hundred similar ritual burials.

In 1995, archaeologists discovered a well-preserved ritual sacrifice, its historical age was about 500 years. It was a girl of 12–14 years old. Anthropologists conducted a lot of research on her, as a result of which they were able to find out the state of health, the diet of the Incas and a number of other details. These findings were obtained for the first time because the victim was frozen, with internal organs preserved, and not a dried-out mummy, as previous findings were. Interestingly, ritual figurines and several bright feathers were located on the top of the Nevada-Sabancay volcano near Cabanaconde (Peruvian village), and the body itself was in the crater of the volcano. Another intriguing fact was that before setting off on a difficult expedition, the American scientist Johan Reinhard and his guide Miguel Zarata offered corn beer to the spirits of the mountains. The ancient ritual worked and brought good luck to the anthropologist.

The Incas mummified the deceased rulers and their khoya. The composition that they used for embalming has not yet been clarified. After mummification (wrapping in fabrics made from the highest quality cotton, impregnated with the appropriate composition), the mummies were dressed in elegant clothes.

There were special servants who looked after the mummies, fed and watered them. The mummies even “went” to visit each other (servants carried them on stretchers) and to the emperor, attended holidays and were the first to “make” toasts. Caring for mummies was carried out at the expense of the state and was quite ruinous. Gradually this custom ceased to exist.

Scientific research has proven that there was no gold in the Andes, therefore, the Incas must have received it from other areas of the empire. And one of these provinces was the Amazon. Even before the arrival of the Incas, local tribesmen paved trails in the Amazonian lowland. The Incas connected them by building a network of roads that connected isolated and inaccessible areas.

Feature transport network The Incas had hanging bridges. They were made from ropes and woven mats and hung across rivers, gorges and chasms, some of which were up to 30 m wide. Some roads built by the Incas are still in use today. They are being restored and completed.

In addition to the various goods (tropical fruits, honey, colorful parrot feathers, etc.) that caravans consisting of numerous llamas brought to the Inca capital, the main product was gold. It was this that was the main reason why the main person in the Spanish campaigns of conquest, Francisco Pizarro, decided to personally undertake an expedition to South America to verify its existence.

Francisco Pizarro was a semi-literate military man. He participated in suppressing the rebellion of the Taino Indian tribe on the island of Hispaniola (now it is Dominican Republic) and Haiti. His first two attempts to enter the Incan lands ended in failure. But in 1527 he reached the city of Tulebes. Seeing temples decorated with precious metals, luxurious gardens with fresh flowers and their copies made of gold, Pizarro realized that the “golden land” was not fiction, but reality. He returned to Spain and told Charles V about the richest land, the simplicity and friendliness of its inhabitants. The king gave him the title of governor and captain-general of all the lands he would conquer in the future.

Pizarro recruited about 160 conquistadors. Charles V supplied them with muskets, crossbows, spears and cannons. In 1532, Pizarro and his team again arrived in the land of the Incas. Just at this time, a civil war broke out between Huascar and Atahualpa over the position of sapa inca (translated as “the only, unique Inca”). The Spaniards, even with such a small number, managed to defeat the Incas, weakened by civil strife and a smallpox epidemic.

Back in 1493, Columbus wrote about the cordiality and friendliness of the inhabitants of the New World: “They refuse nothing that you ask of them; on the contrary, they willingly share with everyone and treat everyone so kindly that they would be ready to give their hearts.” What a contrast with these lines about the character traits of the Incas are the intentions of the Spaniards as stated in the Requisition of 1509: “We will wage war against you with all the ways and means that we have; we will subject you to the church and its officials and force you to obedience; we will take you, your wives and children captive and enslave you!”

When Pizarro and a handful of adventurers first saw the thirty thousand Inca army, the Spaniards realized that they could not defeat them in open battle. Therefore, the conquistadors resorted to cunning. An agreement was reached that Atahualpa would greet the Spaniards as friends. But when the Great Inca, dressed in luxurious clothes sparkling with gold, accompanied by his military leaders, advisers and priests, came out to meet Pizarro, then, at a signal from the monk Valverde, the conquistadors jumped out of ambush, killed Atahualpa’s entire entourage, and captured the Inca himself.

In this terrible massacre, which Pizarro organized, 3,000 Incas were killed, and the rest fled in panic, because they saw that the one who was both king and god for them was taken prisoner. The Spaniards took advantage of the fact that Atahualpa’s retinue had no weapons, because a ceremonial meeting was being prepared.

Pizarro's team, meanwhile, did not lose a single soldier. The captive Atahualpa was kept in royal conditions, and in a short time he learned to speak Spanish. The smart Inca realized that gold was perhaps his only way to stay alive. He offered an unimaginable ransom for his life and freedom - a room measuring 7 by 6 m, which would be filled with gold just above the head of an adult.

The Incas were indifferent to gold in the sense that, unlike fabrics, it never had any material exchange value for them. They called gold “the sweat of the sun,” from which they made beautiful things, real works of art.

The Spaniards were amazed at such untold wealth. But with this proposal, Atahualpa signed his own death sentence: the Spaniards again broke their word, and as soon as the ransom was received, Pizarro sentenced the Inca to death - he was to be burned. Subsequently, the Spaniard replaced burning with death by hanging.

The Spaniards melted down the ransom for Atahualpa, eventually receiving over 6,000 kg of gold and almost 12,000 kg of silver. In the same way, by order of Charles V, all products made of precious metals made by Inca craftsmen were melted down. The Spaniards destroyed temples and palaces, and forced the inhabitants to work in mines and mines, lifting heavy objects high into the mountains. As a result, the country's population fell from 7 million to 500,000.

The surviving Incas, under the leadership of one of the last kings - Manco - went into the jungle and built the city of Vilcabamba there.

It consisted of three hundred relatively small residential buildings and sixty majestic structures made of stone; roads and canals were built in the city. Periodically, the Incas attacked their enslavers, striking their outposts. This continued until 1572. When the conquerors decided to deal with the surviving Incas and came to Vilcabamba, they saw only ashes instead of the city. Manco's three sons, who took turns ruling the city after their father's death, burned it down before leaving. The last Inca leader, Tupac Amaru, was captured by the Spaniards as they carried out their punitive expeditions, going deeper and deeper into the jungle. Tupac Amaru was beheaded in the main square in Cusco. So the Inca Empire ceased to exist.

The descendants of the once great Inca Empire currently live in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. Their number is about 18 million people. Most of the inhabitants of these countries speak Quechua. Peruvians, Bolivians and Ecuadorians believe in the restoration of the former glory and power of the Incas. Schoolchildren in Peru know by heart all the rulers of the Inca Empire. Peruvians also believe that one of the sons of the sun, beheaded by the Spaniards Inkarr, according to legend, will return to them and restore their former civilization. Even foods that were once part of the Incan diet are now becoming more and more popular. These are amaranth, araksa, nynyas, oka, cherimoya, etc.

Tawantinsuya (“the land of four quarters,” as the Incas themselves called their domain) demonstrated the will and intelligence of its people, who created a highly developed civilization in less than a century. And this despite the fact that the Incas did not know wheeled vehicles or writing. The birth, development, flourishing and fall of the Inca Empire were like an explosion, the echo of which has survived to this day.

It is believed that The Incas came to the Cusco valley, where they founded the capital of the empire, around 1200. The American archaeologist J. H. Rowe, who conducted excavations in the Cusco area, suggested that until the first half of the 15th century. the Inca state owned only a few mountain valleys, and the imperial period began in 1438 - the date when the ruler of the Inca state, Pachacuti Yupanqui, defeated the warlike Chanca Indians and annexed the “western part of the world” to his state. However, the Inca civilization probably expanded even before the defeat of the Chanca, but it was directed mainly to the south of Cuzco.

In 1470, the Inca armies approached the capital. After a long siege, the Chimu Empire fell. The winners relocated many skilled artisans to their capital, Cusco. Soon the Incas conquered other states, including them in their new empire: Chincha in the south of Peru, Cuismanca, which united the coastal valleys of the central part of the country, including the temple city of Pachacamac, and the small states of Cajamarca and Sican in the north.

But the legacy of the Chimu Empire was not lost. The Inca Empire did not destroy the capital of Chan-Chan and kept roads, canals, and terraced fields intact, making these lands one of the most prosperous provinces. The centuries-old culture of the Indians of Peru became the basis of ancient civilization.

From amazing wonders and treasures Inca Empire Almost nothing has survived to this day. Having captured the Inca ruler Ataualita, the Spaniards demanded - and received - 7 tons of gold and about 14 tons of silver items as ransom for his life, which were immediately melted down into ingots. After the conquistadors executed Ataualita, the Incas collected and hid the gold remaining in the temples and palaces.

The search for the missing gold continues to this day. If someday archaeologists are lucky enough to find this legendary treasury, we will undoubtedly learn about civilization " children of the sun" a lot of new. Now the number of products of Inca craftsmen can be counted on one hand - these are gold and silver figurines of people and lamas, magnificent gold vessels and breast disks, as well as traditional crescent-shaped tumi knives. By combining their own technologies with the traditions of Chimu jewelers, Incan metallurgists achieved perfection in the processing of precious metals. Spanish chroniclers recorded the story of golden gardens adorning temples dedicated to the Sun. Two of them are reliably known - in the coastal city of Tumbes in the north of the empire and in the main sanctuary of Cusco, the Coricancha Temple. The trees, bushes and herbs in the gardens were made of pure gold. Golden shepherds grazed golden llamas on golden lawns, and golden corn ripened in the fields.

Architecture

Architecture can rightfully be considered the second highest achievement of the Incas. The level of stone processing during the Incas surpasses the best examples of the craftsmanship of the stonemasons of Chavin and Tiahuanaco. Simple, “standard” buildings were built from small stones held together with clay-lime mortar - pirka. Used for palaces and temples giant monoliths, not fastened together by any solution. The stones in such structures are held in place by numerous protrusions that cling to each other. An example is the famous dodecagonal stone in a wall in Cusco, so tightly fitted to neighboring blocks that even a razor blade cannot be inserted between them.

Inca architectural style stern and ascetic; the buildings are overwhelming with their power. However, many buildings were once decorated with gold and silver plates, giving them a completely different look.

The Incas used planned development in their cities. The main element of the city was the kancha - a quarter consisting of residential buildings and warehouses located around a courtyard. In every large center there was a palace, barracks for soldiers, a temple of the Sun and a “monastery” for the Aklya virgins dedicated to the Sun.

Great Inca Roads

All the cities of the empire were connected to each other by a network excellent roads. Two main highways, to which smaller roads adjoined, connected extreme points in the north and south of the country. One of the roads ran along the coast from the Gulf of Guayaquil in Ecuador to the Maule River, south of modern Santiago. Mountain road, called Capac-can (Royal Way), began in the gorges north of Quito, passing through Cusco, turned to Lake Titicaca and ended in the territory of modern Argentina. Both of these arteries, together with the secondary roads adjacent to them, stretched for more than 20 thousand km. In wet areas, roads were paved or filled with a waterproof mixture of maize leaves, pebbles and clay. On the arid coast, they tried to lay roads along areas where hard rocks were exposed. Stone dams equipped with drainage pipes were erected in the swamps. Posts were installed along the roads indicating the distance to settlements. At regular intervals there were inns - tambo. The width of the road surface on the plains reached 7 m, and in mountain gorges it was reduced to 1 m. Roads were laid in a straight line, even if this meant digging a tunnel or cutting down part of a mountain. The Incas built wonderful bridges, the most famous of which were suspension bridges, designed to cross mountain streams. On each side of the gorge, stone pylons were erected, thick ropes were attached to them - two served as railings, and three supported the canvas of branches. The bridges were so strong that they could withstand Spanish conquistadors fully armed and on horseback. To local residents was charged with changing the ropes once a year, as well as repairing the bridge if necessary. The largest bridge of this type across the Apurimac River was 75 m long and hung 40 m above the water.

Roads became the basis of the empire, stretching over a vast area from Ecuador in the north to Chile in the south and from the Pacific coast in the west to the eastern slopes of the Andes. The very name of the state claims world domination. This word in the Quechua language means “four interconnected countries of the world.” Across the countries of the world there was also Administrative division: in the north was the province of Chinchasuyu, in the south - Collasuyu, in the west - Kontisuyu and in the east - Antisuyu.

During the reign of the most famous emperors - Tupac Yupanqui, who took the throne in 1463, and Vaino Capac (1493-1525), the state finally acquired the features of a centralized empire.

Society

At the head of the state was the emperor - Sapa Inca, the Only Inca. A census of the empire's population was carried out and a decimal administrative system was introduced, with the help of which taxes were collected and an accurate count of subjects was carried out. During the reform, all hereditary leaders were replaced by appointed governors - kuraks.

The entire population of the country carried out labor duties: processing state fields of maize and sweet potatoes (potatoes), maintaining state herds of llamas, military service and work on the construction of cities, roads and mines. In addition, subjects were required to pay a tax in kind - in textiles and livestock.

The practice of mass resettlement in conquered territories became widespread. The Quechua language spoken by the Incas was declared the official language of the empire. Residents of the provinces were not prohibited from using their native language. Compulsory knowledge of Quechua was required only from officials.

Writing

It is believed that the Incas did not create their own writing. To transmit information, they had a knotted letter “kipu”, perfectly adapted for the needs of management and economics. According to one legend, the Incas once had writing, even books, but they were all destroyed by the reformer ruler Pachacuti, who “rewrote history.” An exception was made only for one, kept in the main sanctuary of the Coricancha empire. Those who robbed the capital ancient civilization Incas The Spaniards discovered in Coricancha canvases covered with incomprehensible signs, inserted into golden frames. The frames, of course, were melted down and the canvases burned. Thus perished the only written history of the Inca Empire.

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The Incas are an Indian tribe that inhabited South America before the arrival of Europeans. They created a powerful empire with its capital in the city of Cusco on the territory of the state of Peru. The Inca Empire was inhabited by about 12 million people, and the area extended across the lands of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile and Argentina.

The Incas managed to create great civilization. They were well versed in mathematics, astronomy and architecture. This knowledge helped them build unusual structures and make new discoveries. The great achievement of the Inca culture, which has survived to our day, is the city of Machu Picchu, built high in the mountains. It contains various buildings and temples in which the Incas performed rituals. A water pipeline was connected to the city, providing residents with water. On special terraces, peasants grew various vegetables that were used for cooking.

The Incas had their own religion. It was based on various natural phenomena. The Incas worshiped different gods. The sun god Inti played a major role. He was considered the progenitor of life on Earth, since the sun is a source of light and heat. The Indians considered members of their nobility to be direct descendants of Inti. In the city of Machu Picchu they built a temple of the Sun, in which they observed the celestial body.

In addition, the Incas considered certain rocks sacred, which they called huaca. Ancient Indian legends said that when the world was created, celestial objects went underground and then emerged through rocks and caves.

The great empire ceased to exist in 1572 after a long war with the Spaniards that lasted many years. To this day, in memory of the Inca civilization, abandoned cities, ancient temples, ceramic vessels and much more have been preserved, reminiscent of the former greatness of the mighty Inca country.

Lake Titicaca is located in Central Andes at an altitude of 3810 meters above sea level. Exactly this large lake South America. Its area is 8,300 square kilometers, and it ranks 18th in size, among the most large lakes peace. The depth of the waters is more than a hundred meters, and in some places reaches 300 meters.

It was here, on the shores of a huge and deep reservoir, that during fabulous antiquity there was one of the centers of highly developed civilizations of mankind.

Around it, habitable lands were limited to the east by the impenetrable jungle of the Amazon River basin, and to the west by the boundless waters Pacific Ocean. Ancient people densely populated the narrow western strip of the continent, which began at the borders of modern Ecuador and ended in the central regions of Chile.

In the first millennium BC, civilizations such as Chavin, San Augustin and Paracas existed here. The latter chose for itself the coastal region of the Andes ( South coast modern Peru) and the Paracas Peninsula (sand rain).

The main attraction of this people, which has survived to our times, are the necropolises. They consist of spacious burial chambers; they contain many mummies. The dead, wrapped in several layers of fabric decorated with rich ornaments, are in a sitting position. Knees rest on chins, arms crossed over chest.

What is of particular interest is that some mummies have skulls that are deformed, ovoid in shape, and show signs of trepanation. It’s hard to believe, but the facts are stubborn: once upon a time, more than two thousand years ago, the ancient Aesculapians successfully performed brain surgery. This is confirmed by the partial replacement of the bones of the skulls with gold plates.

Paracas Civilization disappeared into the darkness of centuries in the second century BC. Her traces were lost in the endless stream of time, but there is a number of evidence that casts a faint light on the fate of this mysterious people. This evidence indicates that the descendants of those ancient Aesculapians did not disappear from the earth, but continue to live, skillfully applying invaluable medical knowledge in practice.

But before considering this interesting question, you need to get acquainted with historical events, which took place between the 13th and 16th centuries in the western lands of South America.

History of the Inca Empire

Nine hundred years ago, the Sun God Inti, who oversaw the above-mentioned territory, became concerned about the poor living conditions of people. To cheer up mere mortals, instill confidence in them and make them feel the joy of life, he sent to them his son Manco Capac and his beloved daughter Mama Oaklew.

The ruler's instructions were brief and clear. He gave the children a staff made of pure gold and ordered them to settle in those lands where this expensive product would enter the soil.

The divine offspring carried out their father's will exactly. They wandered for a long time through the mountainous terrain, testing its strength. The rocky ground did not want to accept the precious metal, and the children already began to despair. But then they found themselves in the Cusco valley, near the village of Pacara Tambo, at the foot of the Huanakauri hill. And here a miracle happened: the staff easily entered the soil, as hard as granite. The son and daughter looked at each other joyfully and founded a settlement on this site, which they named Cusco.

The Inca people who lived in the nearby territory praised Manco Capac and Mama Oclew, recognized them as their rulers and began to call their country Tawantinsuyu ( land of four parts).

Years passed. Cusco gradually turned into a large and beautiful city. It was located at an altitude of 3416 meters above sea level and was surrounded by two mountain ranges.

Inca Wars

In parallel with the construction of their capital, the people, who received the support of the gods, waged wars of conquest. At first, he fought for a long time with the Sora and Rucana tribes, who lived in the western lands adjacent to the Cuzco Valley. Having conquered these tribes, the conquerors significantly expanded their borders and began to prepare for further military expansions.

The very strong and brave Chanka people turned out to be a serious opponent. The war with him was long, difficult and cruel. Only by the middle of the 15th century did the Incas manage to defeat their main enemy. At this time, their ruler was Pachacutec, the son of the legendary Manco Capac.

At the beginning of the second half of the 15th century, the descendants of the divine offspring subjugated all the tribes living in the Lake Titicaca basin. The conquests are not limited to this. Military expansion continues, and by the end of the 15th century the conquered territory expanded to huge size. This is already an empire, whose possessions extend from the southern border of modern Colombia to central regions Chile and Argentina.

Government of the Inca Empire

A large state needs competent administrative management. The conquerors divided all the conquered lands into four provinces: Kuntisuyu, Kolyasuyu, Antisuyu and Chinchasuyu. In the center of Cusco was Huacapata Square. From it, in different directions, four roads diverged, leading to these administrative formations of the empire.