The Llama, the Incas, Perú and the Andes
by Charles Young and Karl Klooster

The Inca Empire
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Many of the rope suspension bridges, dating from the days of the ancient Inca Empire have been repaired and rebuilt over the centuries using the same natural materials and traditional techniques to faithfully replicate the originals. They remain in constant use to this day.

As builders, roads and bridges were far from the Incas' only accomplishments. They performed amazing feats, many of which are still not fully understood.

Huge stones, weighing tens, occasionally even hundreds of tons, were moved great distances and to high elevations across rugged terrain, then fitted together so precisely that a knife blade cannot be forced between them.

The terracing of barren mountainsides, transporting of hundreds of tons of dirt to the sites and the creation of sophisticated irrigation systems allowed them to cultivate parcels of land that would appear almost impossible even today.

Machu Picchu, "The Lost City of the Incas", puts the exclamation point on their incredible achievements. Built on a narrow mountain plateau 7,000 feet above sea level, it was accessible only by foot, and only then to those who by the standards of today were in top physical condition. Yet, the Incas somehow brought hundreds of massive stones to the site for its walls and dwellings creating a city inhabited by more than 3,000 people, They grew their food on irrigated terraces carved from the mountainside.

Magnificent Machu Picchu, The City in The Clouds, is one of the acknowledged "Seven Wonders of the World". The impressive Sun Stone in its central square was an early form of sun dial and a sacred icon to the Incas who called themselves, "The People of the Sun."