1 00:00:07,360 --> 00:00:11,560 In 1911, young American explorer Hiram Bingham 2 00:00:11,560 --> 00:00:13,680 arrived in Peru's Sacred Valley. 3 00:00:16,280 --> 00:00:19,120 Bingham was looking for a fabled lost city, 4 00:00:19,120 --> 00:00:21,120 the last redoubt of the Inca 5 00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:23,840 in their doomed battle against the Spanish. 6 00:00:25,360 --> 00:00:26,840 He met a local farmer, 7 00:00:26,840 --> 00:00:30,320 who said he knew of a place which might interest the American... 8 00:00:31,720 --> 00:00:34,080 ..a place overgrown and all but forgotten. 9 00:00:38,680 --> 00:00:41,040 What Bingham saw astonished him. 10 00:00:42,720 --> 00:00:45,280 Peeking through centuries of vegetation 11 00:00:45,280 --> 00:00:47,800 were dozens of granite buildings. 12 00:00:47,800 --> 00:00:51,360 Vast terraces were cut into the mountainside, 13 00:00:51,360 --> 00:00:54,840 criss-crossed by hundreds of steep, stone steps. 14 00:00:59,360 --> 00:01:02,640 The effect on the young explorer was dazzling... 15 00:01:02,640 --> 00:01:04,240 like a dream. 16 00:01:08,840 --> 00:01:11,200 When Bingham arrived here at Machu Picchu, 17 00:01:11,200 --> 00:01:14,440 he thought he had discovered the Lost City of the Inca, 18 00:01:14,440 --> 00:01:18,440 a place so secret, it had remained hidden as Europeans overran 19 00:01:18,440 --> 00:01:21,200 the entire continent of South America. 20 00:01:21,200 --> 00:01:23,760 For Bingham, this site was the Holy Grail, 21 00:01:23,760 --> 00:01:26,880 the key to unlocking the mysteries of the Inca, 22 00:01:26,880 --> 00:01:30,200 the largest pre-Columbian empire in the Americas. 23 00:01:33,200 --> 00:01:38,160 But Machu Picchu provides only a glimpse of an incredible empire. 24 00:01:40,640 --> 00:01:43,560 It's only one part of a remarkable tale. 25 00:01:45,560 --> 00:01:50,720 This is the story of a people who, 600 years ago, built an empire 26 00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:55,120 that stretched from barren coastal desert to lush tropical jungle, 27 00:01:55,120 --> 00:01:57,520 from the edge of the Pacific Ocean 28 00:01:57,520 --> 00:02:00,880 to the high plains of Chile and Argentina. 29 00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:05,200 It's a story of wealth, power, innovation and bloodshed, 30 00:02:05,200 --> 00:02:08,880 all happening in some of the toughest landscapes on the planet. 31 00:02:10,560 --> 00:02:14,440 Fundamentally, this is the story of an empire unlike any other, 32 00:02:14,440 --> 00:02:17,640 one with a completely different worldview to the Europeans 33 00:02:17,640 --> 00:02:19,400 who come to conquer it. 34 00:02:19,400 --> 00:02:22,520 And it's that different way of seeing the world, 35 00:02:22,520 --> 00:02:25,680 of gaining and holding power over so many people, 36 00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:28,240 that make the Inca absolutely fascinating. 37 00:02:32,920 --> 00:02:34,960 The question I want to answer is, 38 00:02:34,960 --> 00:02:36,520 how did they do it? 39 00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:57,080 There are very good reasons why the Inca have long fascinated us. 40 00:02:58,600 --> 00:03:01,520 Their empire was the biggest in the Americas 41 00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:03,480 before the arrival of Europeans. 42 00:03:03,480 --> 00:03:05,560 At its height in the 15th century, 43 00:03:05,560 --> 00:03:08,480 over ten million people were under their rule. 44 00:03:11,560 --> 00:03:16,040 Their vast kingdom was connected by a sophisticated road network, 45 00:03:16,040 --> 00:03:19,400 stretching for thousands of kilometres. 46 00:03:19,400 --> 00:03:21,400 But most remarkable of all 47 00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:24,760 is the apparent speed of their rise to power. 48 00:03:24,760 --> 00:03:29,400 In the 14th century, the Inca were one of many independent peoples 49 00:03:29,400 --> 00:03:31,600 who lived high in the Andes. 50 00:03:31,600 --> 00:03:34,360 Yet they emerged from their Cuzco stronghold and, 51 00:03:34,360 --> 00:03:37,680 seemingly in the space of just 150 years, 52 00:03:37,680 --> 00:03:43,200 built a vast multiethnic empire which spanned a continent, 53 00:03:43,200 --> 00:03:46,760 from the Pacific to the Amazon, incorporating huge swathes 54 00:03:46,760 --> 00:03:50,320 of the modern=day countries of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, 55 00:03:50,320 --> 00:03:51,720 Chile and Argentina. 56 00:03:59,120 --> 00:04:02,720 For many years, our understanding of the Inca has been dominated 57 00:04:02,720 --> 00:04:06,000 by the chronicles written by the Spanish conquistadors. 58 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:09,920 But these chronicles are written often with a very specific agenda in mind... 59 00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:11,840 to justify the Spanish Conquest. 60 00:04:13,520 --> 00:04:15,280 The Spanish came across an empire 61 00:04:15,280 --> 00:04:18,000 which they had no frame of reference for... 62 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:22,360 effectively a Neolithic Empire run without the pen or the sword. 63 00:04:22,360 --> 00:04:24,240 No writing, no wheel, 64 00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:27,320 no animal which could carry a human, 65 00:04:27,320 --> 00:04:30,200 no markets, no currency. 66 00:04:30,200 --> 00:04:34,200 So a whole, peculiar, complex society in European eyes. 67 00:04:35,280 --> 00:04:38,920 I think it's time to question whether we need to re-evaluate 68 00:04:38,920 --> 00:04:41,360 the Inca rise to power. 69 00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:45,360 Perhaps early historical records have been misleading. 70 00:04:45,360 --> 00:04:48,640 Is there a different, far more intriguing, story to be told 71 00:04:48,640 --> 00:04:51,080 about the emergence of the Inca Empire? 72 00:04:53,040 --> 00:04:56,840 The most important thing to bear in mind is that this wasn't an empire 73 00:04:56,840 --> 00:04:59,360 like the British Empire or the Roman Empire, 74 00:04:59,360 --> 00:05:01,680 where histories were carefully written down 75 00:05:01,680 --> 00:05:04,280 and power came in the form of a dozen legions 76 00:05:04,280 --> 00:05:05,720 or the barrel of a gun. 77 00:05:05,720 --> 00:05:07,840 This was a non-Western empire 78 00:05:07,840 --> 00:05:11,000 and that's often made it difficult for westerners to study. 79 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:13,360 In order to understand the Inca, 80 00:05:13,360 --> 00:05:17,320 you need to get inside the Incan mind, and think like they thought. 81 00:05:20,840 --> 00:05:24,280 And that means getting far away from Machu Picchu. 82 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:36,560 One of the major differences between the Inca world and our own 83 00:05:36,560 --> 00:05:39,080 is the concept of time. 84 00:05:39,080 --> 00:05:41,680 The Inca thought differently than we do 85 00:05:41,680 --> 00:05:44,400 about the past, present, and future. 86 00:05:44,400 --> 00:05:47,040 And this has significant implications for understanding 87 00:05:47,040 --> 00:05:49,000 all aspects of Inca history, 88 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:53,880 and not least how long it really took them to build their empire. 89 00:05:53,880 --> 00:05:56,720 The way that we think is so ingrained that it's very hard 90 00:05:56,720 --> 00:05:59,360 to try and change our perspective on things, 91 00:05:59,360 --> 00:06:01,080 but it's something we have to do 92 00:06:01,080 --> 00:06:03,280 if we are to understand the Inca Empire. 93 00:06:03,280 --> 00:06:05,240 We have to get inside the Inca mind. 94 00:06:05,240 --> 00:06:06,840 For us, we have life. 95 00:06:06,840 --> 00:06:09,400 We are born and then we die. 96 00:06:09,400 --> 00:06:11,720 And this is essentially a linear path. 97 00:06:11,720 --> 00:06:14,760 Everything that happens before a moment of our lives 98 00:06:14,760 --> 00:06:18,360 we would call "history" and it happens behind us. 99 00:06:18,360 --> 00:06:21,320 Everything that's going to happen beyond this point in this line, 100 00:06:21,320 --> 00:06:23,080 we would call "the future". 101 00:06:24,520 --> 00:06:25,960 Crucially, therefore, 102 00:06:25,960 --> 00:06:28,440 everything that we understand about our ancestors 103 00:06:28,440 --> 00:06:30,120 and the world that has gone before 104 00:06:30,120 --> 00:06:32,800 creates and affects our lives along this line. 105 00:06:32,800 --> 00:06:36,080 And everything that we do in our own life will affect the future 106 00:06:36,080 --> 00:06:38,720 and this is a linear concept of time. 107 00:06:38,720 --> 00:06:41,960 That is completely different to how the Inca understood time. 108 00:06:41,960 --> 00:06:44,800 So for the Inca, start with the first line, 109 00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:47,000 which they might call Kay Pacha. 110 00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:49,160 Kay Pacha is essentially a lifeline. 111 00:06:49,160 --> 00:06:53,680 But there are two parallel lines, Hanan Pacha and Uku Pacha, 112 00:06:53,680 --> 00:06:56,040 which is the past and the future. 113 00:06:56,040 --> 00:06:58,160 And these lines run in parallel 114 00:06:58,160 --> 00:07:00,960 because they can happen at the same time. 115 00:07:00,960 --> 00:07:04,560 So at any particular moment of life on this line, 116 00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:08,640 they can transect between the past and the future. 117 00:07:08,640 --> 00:07:12,720 And this point here is a particular moment of experience 118 00:07:12,720 --> 00:07:16,600 in the present which is affected directly by the past or the future. 119 00:07:18,240 --> 00:07:20,440 We get a sense that there were multiple histories, 120 00:07:20,440 --> 00:07:22,080 there were multiple pasts 121 00:07:22,080 --> 00:07:23,640 and there were multiple references 122 00:07:23,640 --> 00:07:26,040 to different things that different ancestors had done 123 00:07:26,040 --> 00:07:28,480 depending on who was telling the story. 124 00:07:28,480 --> 00:07:31,720 So, because of this, it becomes very difficult to determine exactly 125 00:07:31,720 --> 00:07:36,280 what was the historical sequence of the development of the Inca Empire 126 00:07:36,280 --> 00:07:40,000 in a way that would make sense to us as a nice European chronicle. 127 00:07:41,480 --> 00:07:45,200 The Inca don't talk the same language of time as we do 128 00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:47,760 and so we need to think about the chronology 129 00:07:47,760 --> 00:07:50,040 of their history quite differently. 130 00:07:50,040 --> 00:07:54,240 By understanding this, we can begin to unravel the true story 131 00:07:54,240 --> 00:07:57,480 of the rise of the Inca Empire. 132 00:07:57,480 --> 00:07:59,560 If you contrast the historical information 133 00:07:59,560 --> 00:08:03,360 to the archaeological information, we get a very different picture. 134 00:08:03,360 --> 00:08:06,960 Studies of the emergence of the Incas as a power 135 00:08:06,960 --> 00:08:09,520 over neighbouring societies surrounding Cuzco 136 00:08:09,520 --> 00:08:12,080 show that they were probably a pretty potent society, 137 00:08:12,080 --> 00:08:16,520 perhaps even a state, as early as almost 100 years before 138 00:08:16,520 --> 00:08:19,320 their emergence as a ruling empire. 139 00:08:23,160 --> 00:08:26,720 This means the origins of the Inca date back much further 140 00:08:26,720 --> 00:08:29,040 than we originally thought. 141 00:08:29,040 --> 00:08:32,520 I think it also means that when they started to build their empire, 142 00:08:32,520 --> 00:08:36,160 the Inca built upon the achievements of people who went before. 143 00:08:48,080 --> 00:08:49,960 A few hours' drive south of Cuzco, 144 00:08:49,960 --> 00:08:53,000 there are the remains of a long-forgotten settlement... 145 00:08:58,720 --> 00:09:00,760 ..remnants of buildings and streets 146 00:09:00,760 --> 00:09:03,640 which stretch over nearly two square kilometres. 147 00:09:05,680 --> 00:09:08,200 But these ruins aren't Inca. 148 00:09:08,200 --> 00:09:11,400 They were built by a people who rose and fell 149 00:09:11,400 --> 00:09:13,960 long before the Inca dominated this region. 150 00:09:17,520 --> 00:09:20,120 These people were called the Wari 151 00:09:20,120 --> 00:09:22,840 and this place was known as Pikillacta 152 00:09:22,840 --> 00:09:25,360 and I believe the Inca learnt a great deal 153 00:09:25,360 --> 00:09:27,200 from what the Wari built here. 154 00:09:29,680 --> 00:09:32,320 Throughout this part of South America, 155 00:09:32,320 --> 00:09:36,320 you can find the remains of cultures stretching back thousands of years. 156 00:09:36,320 --> 00:09:39,800 These past societies had their own world views, belief systems 157 00:09:39,800 --> 00:09:41,800 and ways of living their lives. 158 00:09:41,800 --> 00:09:44,560 And it's understanding the inter-relationships between them 159 00:09:44,560 --> 00:09:45,960 that is important. 160 00:09:45,960 --> 00:09:49,360 No society suddenly appears independently on its own. 161 00:09:49,360 --> 00:09:51,680 But some societies can be so successful 162 00:09:51,680 --> 00:09:54,520 that their influence spreads far and wide. 163 00:09:54,520 --> 00:09:56,560 That was the case with the Wari. 164 00:10:00,920 --> 00:10:04,400 The Wari were the first to unite multiple areas, 165 00:10:04,400 --> 00:10:08,600 from north to south, covering most of modern-day Peru. 166 00:10:10,640 --> 00:10:12,840 Pikillacta was one of the Wari Empire's 167 00:10:12,840 --> 00:10:16,080 most impressive settlements. 168 00:10:16,080 --> 00:10:19,720 It's been estimated that, cumulatively, it would have taken 169 00:10:19,720 --> 00:10:22,840 six million days of back-breaking labour to build it. 170 00:10:25,320 --> 00:10:27,120 This is a vast and beautiful site 171 00:10:27,120 --> 00:10:29,400 and a really important one for the Wari. 172 00:10:29,400 --> 00:10:31,240 But it's when you walk around 173 00:10:31,240 --> 00:10:33,440 that you get a sense of experience of the place, 174 00:10:33,440 --> 00:10:35,880 because they had these incredibly long corridors 175 00:10:35,880 --> 00:10:38,240 with these dominating high walls. 176 00:10:38,240 --> 00:10:40,680 It must have been quite a disorienting experience. 177 00:10:40,680 --> 00:10:44,040 Perhaps led through one of these doorways, 178 00:10:44,040 --> 00:10:48,240 you enter out into these open spaces or patios 179 00:10:48,240 --> 00:10:51,600 that would have covered in white paint and perhaps murals. 180 00:10:55,800 --> 00:10:58,000 Pikillacta dominated this region 181 00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:00,600 towards the end of the first millennium. 182 00:11:00,600 --> 00:11:04,400 And walking through these ruins today, it seems to me the Wari 183 00:11:04,400 --> 00:11:07,800 laid the foundations of how to build an empire in the Andes. 184 00:11:18,120 --> 00:11:23,160 Many of the ideas of so-called Inca statecraft which we think of 185 00:11:23,160 --> 00:11:27,240 actually had their roots in the Wari. 186 00:11:27,240 --> 00:11:29,520 Not least the road system. 187 00:11:29,520 --> 00:11:32,560 You can't create a road system in the time period 188 00:11:32,560 --> 00:11:35,160 that the Incas were around in. 189 00:11:35,160 --> 00:11:39,680 There was a great expansion of people and ideas at a time 190 00:11:39,680 --> 00:11:43,800 far deeper than the Inca Empire. 191 00:11:43,800 --> 00:11:47,440 Critical to the success of the Wari 192 00:11:47,440 --> 00:11:50,440 was their understanding of this brutal environment 193 00:11:50,440 --> 00:11:53,240 and the innovations they developed to overcome it. 194 00:11:54,720 --> 00:11:57,480 The Wari were masters of landscape transformation. 195 00:11:57,480 --> 00:12:00,600 Canals that brought the water down from the mountain peaks, 196 00:12:00,600 --> 00:12:02,120 where the rains fall, 197 00:12:02,120 --> 00:12:05,680 into the rich agricultural regions where they terraced the landscape 198 00:12:05,680 --> 00:12:10,480 in order to turn the mountainsides into productive agricultural lands. 199 00:12:10,480 --> 00:12:14,200 The ingenious solutions we see at work at Pikillacta are, 200 00:12:14,200 --> 00:12:17,240 I believe, crucial in helping us to understand 201 00:12:17,240 --> 00:12:19,480 not only the success of the Wari, 202 00:12:19,480 --> 00:12:21,840 but also the Inca who came after them. 203 00:12:24,520 --> 00:12:29,520 This aqueduct is part of a 48km-long network of canal systems 204 00:12:29,520 --> 00:12:33,560 taking water from the high mountains right into the heart of the site 205 00:12:33,560 --> 00:12:37,960 of Pikillacta and down to the agricultural terraces below. 206 00:12:37,960 --> 00:12:41,400 This region receives barely enough water 207 00:12:41,400 --> 00:12:44,560 to support large-scale agriculture or settlement. 208 00:12:44,560 --> 00:12:48,640 And in times of drought, this land can become an incredibly difficult 209 00:12:48,640 --> 00:12:50,320 place for humans to thrive. 210 00:12:54,320 --> 00:12:58,400 90% of the rainfall in the Andes falls on the jungle regions. 211 00:12:58,400 --> 00:13:00,960 Only 10% makes it to the western coasts. 212 00:13:00,960 --> 00:13:04,920 Only through increased efficiency in agricultural technologies 213 00:13:04,920 --> 00:13:08,880 and production can humans respond effectively to drought. 214 00:13:08,880 --> 00:13:11,200 That's what the Wari introduced. 215 00:13:11,200 --> 00:13:13,040 The lesson of the Wari is that 216 00:13:13,040 --> 00:13:16,560 before you can build an empire in this part of the world, 217 00:13:16,560 --> 00:13:20,240 you first need to master the landscape itself. 218 00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:23,680 The Wari agrarian technology was a drought adaptive technology. 219 00:13:23,680 --> 00:13:25,920 It was much more efficient in the use of water 220 00:13:25,920 --> 00:13:29,640 than previous systems had been and that gave the Wari an adaptive edge 221 00:13:29,640 --> 00:13:33,160 in bringing their new system to these local groups 222 00:13:33,160 --> 00:13:35,240 that were living in that region at the time. 223 00:13:38,480 --> 00:13:39,720 Interestingly, 224 00:13:39,720 --> 00:13:44,320 the challenges faced by the Wari still affect people here today. 225 00:13:44,320 --> 00:13:48,600 1,000 years later, Peru's climate remains one of the most extreme 226 00:13:48,600 --> 00:13:50,560 and vulnerable in the world. 227 00:13:59,320 --> 00:14:01,680 Most of the rainfall that falls on the Andes 228 00:14:01,680 --> 00:14:03,520 comes from South Atlantic sources, 229 00:14:03,520 --> 00:14:06,400 coming in as part of the monsoonal system across the Amazon 230 00:14:06,400 --> 00:14:08,000 and brought up into the Andes. 231 00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:12,720 Whereas the western side of the Andes and the coast is a desert, 232 00:14:12,720 --> 00:14:17,360 effectively, because the winds that come across the Pacific are dry. 233 00:14:19,280 --> 00:14:23,080 Most of the population of Peru today live on that desert strip. 234 00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:35,680 I've come to the village of Maras, high in the Andes, 235 00:14:35,680 --> 00:14:38,720 where a dry spell has made life tough for local farmers 236 00:14:38,720 --> 00:14:40,760 like Felicitas Torres. 237 00:14:40,760 --> 00:14:44,160 THEY SPEAK SPANISH 238 00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:25,560 Authorities in Maras have responded to the dry spell 239 00:15:25,560 --> 00:15:29,600 by bussing in containers of fresh water from Cuzco. 240 00:15:29,600 --> 00:15:34,160 It has helped, but it's in no way a sustainable solution. 241 00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:25,200 What's happening in Maras today also happened here many centuries ago. 242 00:16:25,200 --> 00:16:27,080 But the Wari did not have the option 243 00:16:27,080 --> 00:16:30,000 to bus in tanks of water to sustain them. 244 00:16:31,600 --> 00:16:34,440 At the end of the first millennium, we know that conditions 245 00:16:34,440 --> 00:16:38,240 were both dry and really quite cold up in the mountains. 246 00:16:38,240 --> 00:16:40,680 And that's the time when the Wari disappeared 247 00:16:40,680 --> 00:16:42,600 from the archaeological record. 248 00:16:45,520 --> 00:16:48,640 The Wari understood their environment, 249 00:16:48,640 --> 00:16:52,280 but a prolonged drought may have proved too much, even for them. 250 00:16:53,680 --> 00:16:57,920 Climate change could have been one of the factors 251 00:16:57,920 --> 00:17:01,360 which put a lot of pressure on the Wari. 252 00:17:01,360 --> 00:17:05,920 Now, the societies knew how to deal with short-term climate change. 253 00:17:05,920 --> 00:17:08,160 They had in place a lot of strategies 254 00:17:08,160 --> 00:17:09,800 that enabled them to cope. 255 00:17:09,800 --> 00:17:13,640 But climate at those altitudes is one of the real pressure points. 256 00:17:17,720 --> 00:17:22,400 However ingenious the Wari solutions were to the challenges they faced, 257 00:17:22,400 --> 00:17:24,000 their power waned. 258 00:17:25,880 --> 00:17:29,240 But there can be little doubt that the Inca built on the knowledge 259 00:17:29,240 --> 00:17:32,280 of what the Wari left behind. 260 00:17:32,280 --> 00:17:35,320 We have people continuing to live in the Cuzco region, 261 00:17:35,320 --> 00:17:38,480 continuing the oral traditions and the historical traditions 262 00:17:38,480 --> 00:17:40,280 of the Wari within the Cuzco region 263 00:17:40,280 --> 00:17:42,400 that the Inca could have picked up upon. 264 00:17:42,400 --> 00:17:46,960 The Inca also had the benefit of the monuments that the Wari had built, 265 00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:48,840 and right in their back yard. 266 00:17:49,960 --> 00:17:53,200 The Wari created a large and powerful state. 267 00:17:53,200 --> 00:17:56,000 They were able to harness the harsh environments 268 00:17:56,000 --> 00:17:59,680 using ingenious large-scale construction projects like this, 269 00:17:59,680 --> 00:18:02,280 technologies often associated with the Inca. 270 00:18:02,280 --> 00:18:05,440 But the reason I like this one is that you can see the original 271 00:18:05,440 --> 00:18:09,400 Wari construction behind, re-used and restored by the Inca 272 00:18:09,400 --> 00:18:11,680 with this lovely stonework at the front. 273 00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:15,760 The Inca are using Wari technology, but the crucial difference is, 274 00:18:15,760 --> 00:18:17,680 they're also up-scaling it. 275 00:18:22,320 --> 00:18:25,480 To see exactly how they did this, I'm heading north, 276 00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:27,200 into the heart of the Cuzco Valley. 277 00:18:30,520 --> 00:18:33,120 This mountainous land is not naturally suited 278 00:18:33,120 --> 00:18:35,600 to large-scale agricultural production. 279 00:18:37,240 --> 00:18:41,000 The challenges presented by the harsh climate are considerable. 280 00:18:42,280 --> 00:18:47,720 But here, the Incas' remarkable ability to problem solve revolutionised agriculture 281 00:18:47,720 --> 00:18:50,840 and played a key role in the expansion of their empire. 282 00:19:01,160 --> 00:19:02,640 This is Moray. 283 00:19:02,640 --> 00:19:06,080 It lies 3,500 metres above sea level 284 00:19:06,080 --> 00:19:09,280 and is one of the most remarkable human landscapes on earth. 285 00:19:10,560 --> 00:19:14,640 Moray consists of three huge limestone depressions, 286 00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:17,800 into which terraces have been carved. 287 00:19:17,800 --> 00:19:21,240 This is the place where Inca skills in engineering 288 00:19:21,240 --> 00:19:23,800 and agriculture combined perfectly. 289 00:19:23,800 --> 00:19:27,560 It's a place which synthesises beauty and technology 290 00:19:27,560 --> 00:19:31,640 and transformed the lives of the Inca and those they would soon rule. 291 00:19:35,680 --> 00:19:38,560 These terraces can be up to three metres in height 292 00:19:38,560 --> 00:19:41,360 and they have this thick retaining wall 293 00:19:41,360 --> 00:19:44,440 which is angled back to hold back the soil behind. 294 00:19:44,440 --> 00:19:47,000 And what's behind is actually really clever. 295 00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:50,440 At the bottom, you have a series of broken stones for drainage. 296 00:19:50,440 --> 00:19:53,840 Above that, a layer of coarse soil, which acts as a bedding, 297 00:19:53,840 --> 00:19:57,320 and then a metre of topsoil, which they continually turn over 298 00:19:57,320 --> 00:19:59,120 to aerate the soil. 299 00:19:59,120 --> 00:20:02,600 And these stone walls absorb the heat of the sun during the day 300 00:20:02,600 --> 00:20:06,760 and that radiates through at night, protecting the crops against frost. 301 00:20:10,320 --> 00:20:13,800 The ingenuity of the terraces lies not just in their ability 302 00:20:13,800 --> 00:20:18,440 to increase the amount of land the Inca could cultivate. 303 00:20:18,440 --> 00:20:21,040 They were a mechanism for manipulating the environment, 304 00:20:21,040 --> 00:20:24,080 altering the ambient temperature of the whole site... 305 00:20:26,560 --> 00:20:30,280 ..and making the production of crops at high altitude possible. 306 00:20:33,040 --> 00:20:35,640 Today, the temperature at the top of the terraces 307 00:20:35,640 --> 00:20:37,680 is 16 degrees centigrade. 308 00:20:38,840 --> 00:20:42,040 Down here at the bottom, you have this crucible effect 309 00:20:42,040 --> 00:20:44,880 where the temperature is much warmer, there's no airflow, 310 00:20:44,880 --> 00:20:48,400 and these stone terraces circle round, radiating the heat. 311 00:20:48,400 --> 00:20:50,840 Here, you can see it's over 22 degrees now. 312 00:20:53,960 --> 00:20:57,520 The difference in temperature from the top of this site to the bottom 313 00:20:57,520 --> 00:21:00,560 means that each terrace at Moray represents a different 314 00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:03,800 ecological zone as you move up the side of the Andes. 315 00:21:06,280 --> 00:21:08,880 The implications of this are profound. 316 00:21:09,920 --> 00:21:12,600 It means this was a place where Inca engineers 317 00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:16,120 created their own micro-climates, allowing them to experiment 318 00:21:16,120 --> 00:21:19,320 in cultivating a variety of different crops 319 00:21:19,320 --> 00:21:22,680 which would not normally have been grown at these altitudes. 320 00:21:26,320 --> 00:21:29,360 Tomatoes, squashes, pumpkins, types of tobacco. 321 00:21:29,360 --> 00:21:31,800 That's not so beneficial, perhaps, 322 00:21:31,800 --> 00:21:35,680 but it underlines the point that, although we marvel at 323 00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:38,880 the Zen aesthetic of Machu Picchu and so forth, 324 00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:41,600 really what's much more important, in my view, 325 00:21:41,600 --> 00:21:43,880 is the legacy of their agriculture. 326 00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:54,000 The Incas were essentially reconfiguring the biotic landscape 327 00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:57,320 by changing the terrain, changing the heat 328 00:21:57,320 --> 00:22:00,600 and water retention capacities through their terracing systems, 329 00:22:00,600 --> 00:22:04,760 which developed a series of warm weather estates 330 00:22:04,760 --> 00:22:07,080 in a cold weather climate. 331 00:22:07,080 --> 00:22:09,560 These terraces show how the Inca understood 332 00:22:09,560 --> 00:22:12,080 the advantages of this vertical landscape. 333 00:22:12,080 --> 00:22:14,080 In effect, they farmed upwards. 334 00:22:14,080 --> 00:22:16,920 They managed to turn the harsh contours of the land 335 00:22:16,920 --> 00:22:18,560 to their advantage. 336 00:22:18,560 --> 00:22:21,200 And by growing different crops at different elevations, 337 00:22:21,200 --> 00:22:24,120 it gave them a huge diversity in the crops that they grew. 338 00:22:24,120 --> 00:22:26,200 This had two key advantages. 339 00:22:26,200 --> 00:22:29,120 One, they had a healthier and more diverse diet. 340 00:22:29,120 --> 00:22:32,880 And two, it helped mitigate against the impact in the past 341 00:22:32,880 --> 00:22:35,080 that had created hunger and unrest... 342 00:22:35,080 --> 00:22:38,400 droughts and floods, pests and frost. 343 00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:45,960 This is what I mean when I say the Inca scaled up Wari technology. 344 00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:50,320 Inca agriculture wasn't just about feeding a family, or even a city. 345 00:22:50,320 --> 00:22:53,200 It was about scientifically managing production, 346 00:22:53,200 --> 00:22:55,160 so they could feed an empire. 347 00:22:56,880 --> 00:22:58,960 By creating this food surplus, 348 00:22:58,960 --> 00:23:01,480 it provided time to devote to other things, 349 00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:04,120 like expansion beyond their borders. 350 00:23:04,120 --> 00:23:08,120 It was also a great calling card as they approached other cultures, 351 00:23:08,120 --> 00:23:11,960 because Moray shows that the Inca were problem-solvers 352 00:23:11,960 --> 00:23:17,120 and able to create these very efficient and effective managed landscapes. 353 00:23:17,120 --> 00:23:21,360 And in a region where climate was unpredictable and catastrophic, 354 00:23:21,360 --> 00:23:24,520 where people could often face starvation and hunger, 355 00:23:24,520 --> 00:23:28,840 the ability to provide a reliable, regular and good quality amount 356 00:23:28,840 --> 00:23:31,880 of food was a source of supreme power for the Inca. 357 00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:36,280 But that's only part of the story. 358 00:23:36,280 --> 00:23:40,320 For the Inca state to flourish, they needed not only to grow enough food, 359 00:23:40,320 --> 00:23:43,840 but also to distribute it quickly and efficiently, 360 00:23:43,840 --> 00:23:45,760 which could be a serious problem 361 00:23:45,760 --> 00:23:48,640 when you live in such a challenging landscape as this. 362 00:23:53,280 --> 00:23:55,560 But a few miles north of Moray 363 00:23:55,560 --> 00:23:58,440 is a place which I think might hold the answer. 364 00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:13,640 This is an amazing spot. Below me is the town of Ollantaytambo. 365 00:24:13,640 --> 00:24:16,440 And above it, clinging to the side of the cliff, 366 00:24:16,440 --> 00:24:19,080 is a series of tall buildings. 367 00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:22,360 At first glance, they may not seem like the most impressive thing, 368 00:24:22,360 --> 00:24:25,240 but these structures are critical to the foundations 369 00:24:25,240 --> 00:24:26,680 of the entire Inca Empire. 370 00:24:30,360 --> 00:24:33,040 These are qollqas, storehouses, 371 00:24:33,040 --> 00:24:37,000 and they are iconic buildings found all over the Inca empire. 372 00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:39,680 Sometimes they are by the side of roads, 373 00:24:39,680 --> 00:24:42,080 sometimes near centres of population, 374 00:24:42,080 --> 00:24:43,880 like here, at Ollantaytambo. 375 00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:49,000 These weren't just barns for storing food. 376 00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:51,920 They were sophisticated silos that were critical 377 00:24:51,920 --> 00:24:55,520 to the well-being of the people and the maintenance of power. 378 00:24:55,520 --> 00:24:58,960 In here would be stored everything from maize to potatoes, 379 00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:01,960 textiles to weapons, and vast numbers of seeds 380 00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:05,040 that could be used for next year's planting. 381 00:25:05,040 --> 00:25:09,000 They were often located in strategic places, well ventilated 382 00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:10,600 and not prone to flooding. 383 00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:21,760 The combined storage space of this network would have run 384 00:25:21,760 --> 00:25:25,400 to hundreds of thousands of cubic metres. 385 00:25:25,400 --> 00:25:28,640 That means that people across the Empire could be supplied 386 00:25:28,640 --> 00:25:32,400 with everything they needed, whenever circumstances demanded. 387 00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:38,000 One of the ways that we can understand the scale and order 388 00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:40,040 of the Inca warehousing system 389 00:25:40,040 --> 00:25:43,520 is by looking at the experience of the Spaniards who came in 390 00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:46,400 in 1548 into the upper Mantaro Valley 391 00:25:46,400 --> 00:25:48,080 in the central highlands of Peru. 392 00:25:48,080 --> 00:25:51,560 There were 2,000 of them and they stayed there for multiple weeks 393 00:25:51,560 --> 00:25:54,120 and they said, at the end of that period, 394 00:25:54,120 --> 00:25:57,520 they couldn't recognise that they'd made a dent in the warehouses 395 00:25:57,520 --> 00:26:00,160 and in the contents of the facilities. 396 00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:04,080 These storehouses tell me that the Inca understood the need 397 00:26:04,080 --> 00:26:07,880 to provide food security for the people they ruled. 398 00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:12,400 It's actually quite a modern idea. 399 00:26:12,400 --> 00:26:15,520 In the UK, during the fuel protests of 2000, 400 00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:19,000 supermarket bosses told the government they only had enough fuel 401 00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:22,160 to distribute food to the people for another three days. 402 00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:25,200 After that, they'd start to go hungry. 403 00:26:25,200 --> 00:26:28,200 This focuses the mind on food security, 404 00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:31,400 because it's not just about growing food, it's about its storage 405 00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:34,200 and distribution that is perhaps the most important. 406 00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:36,040 And the Inca understood this. 407 00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:39,640 That's why they created this vast system of storage facilities 408 00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:43,600 and a distribution network that got the food to the people. 409 00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:46,080 And this was important during times of drought 410 00:26:46,080 --> 00:26:47,920 and environmental disaster. 411 00:26:53,200 --> 00:26:56,600 The Inca storehouses, in times of scarcity and in times of drought, 412 00:26:56,600 --> 00:27:00,600 could be used to feed the populaces, to feed the masses, 413 00:27:00,600 --> 00:27:04,120 in order to save them from certain death and destruction. 414 00:27:04,120 --> 00:27:08,560 To the people who did the farming, they were a source of security. 415 00:27:08,560 --> 00:27:11,200 An insurance, if you will, against the bad years, 416 00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:14,920 knowing that the Inca state would be able to provide for them. 417 00:27:14,920 --> 00:27:18,200 But I suspect these storehouses served more than a practical, 418 00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:20,240 administrative function. 419 00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:24,640 The storehouses provided a highly visible symbol of the Inca state 420 00:27:24,640 --> 00:27:29,480 to its people, demonstrating both its reach and its benevolence. 421 00:27:31,240 --> 00:27:35,160 There was a basic level of understanding that the Inca 422 00:27:35,160 --> 00:27:38,120 would care for the poorest members of its society. 423 00:27:38,120 --> 00:27:41,040 It was a basic social contract, if you will. 424 00:27:41,040 --> 00:27:44,560 These storehouses were an important logistical element 425 00:27:44,560 --> 00:27:46,120 of a growing empire. 426 00:27:47,280 --> 00:27:51,320 But they also hint at the developing nature of Inca power itself. 427 00:27:53,360 --> 00:27:56,000 You get the sense of a different type of empire 428 00:27:56,000 --> 00:27:57,880 when you come to a place like this. 429 00:27:57,880 --> 00:28:01,600 You see how much effort they went to, to provide for people's needs. 430 00:28:01,600 --> 00:28:03,760 It's almost an attractive type of empire 431 00:28:03,760 --> 00:28:05,960 that people would want to become part of. 432 00:28:05,960 --> 00:28:08,560 Why wouldn't you want to join an empire that provided for you 433 00:28:08,560 --> 00:28:11,120 in times of need, good times and bad? 434 00:28:13,120 --> 00:28:16,000 The creation of these storehouses tells us a lot 435 00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:19,480 about the great Inca ability to organise and plan 436 00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:22,120 the use of their resources 437 00:28:22,120 --> 00:28:24,840 They embody an empire which could offer solutions 438 00:28:24,840 --> 00:28:26,640 to the people of the Andes. 439 00:28:26,640 --> 00:28:30,000 But in order to truly understand the nature of Inca power, 440 00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:32,560 I think we also have to look at how they approach 441 00:28:32,560 --> 00:28:34,760 these people in the first place. 442 00:28:34,760 --> 00:28:37,400 How, in effect, they pitched their empire 443 00:28:37,400 --> 00:28:39,120 to the people they would rule. 444 00:28:42,120 --> 00:28:43,640 To find out how they did it, 445 00:28:43,640 --> 00:28:46,360 I'm taking the road west, towards the ocean. 446 00:28:56,000 --> 00:29:00,160 This is the Temple of Pachacamac, on the Pacific Coast of Peru. 447 00:29:02,880 --> 00:29:04,880 And you can see the distinctive method 448 00:29:04,880 --> 00:29:06,840 of Inca empire building at work here. 449 00:29:08,520 --> 00:29:10,760 For thousands of years before the Inca, 450 00:29:10,760 --> 00:29:14,040 this was one of the most important and powerful religious sites 451 00:29:14,040 --> 00:29:15,440 in South America. 452 00:29:22,800 --> 00:29:26,000 Pachacamac's followers came from as far away as Ecuador 453 00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:28,720 and Bolivia to consult the oracle housed here. 454 00:29:30,560 --> 00:29:34,600 This massive complex was nothing less than an American Mecca. 455 00:29:37,440 --> 00:29:40,680 Which perhaps makes Incan attitudes towards Pachacamac 456 00:29:40,680 --> 00:29:42,600 even more surprising. 457 00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:49,960 They didn't destroy this religious centre, 458 00:29:49,960 --> 00:29:53,000 stamp out its idolatry or even forbid people from worshipping 459 00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:54,880 the oracle here at Pachacamac. 460 00:29:54,880 --> 00:29:57,040 Exactly the opposite, in fact. 461 00:29:57,040 --> 00:29:59,560 They incorporated the oracle of Pachacamac 462 00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:02,000 within their own pantheon of deities, 463 00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:04,360 even building a shrine to it in Cuzco. 464 00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:11,440 This willingness to tolerate and absorb other religions 465 00:30:11,440 --> 00:30:14,200 tells us a great deal about Inca power. 466 00:30:14,200 --> 00:30:17,560 It tells me that, as they expanded into new territory, 467 00:30:17,560 --> 00:30:19,560 they wanted to avoid conflict. 468 00:30:21,760 --> 00:30:25,320 The Incas were very effective at expanding out of their homeland 469 00:30:25,320 --> 00:30:27,760 because they practised economy of force. 470 00:30:27,760 --> 00:30:30,480 That is, they didn't conduct military operations 471 00:30:30,480 --> 00:30:32,160 except as a last resort. 472 00:30:32,160 --> 00:30:35,400 They tried diplomacy, they tried bribery, they tried all sorts 473 00:30:35,400 --> 00:30:39,800 of accommodations to bring people into their empire. 474 00:30:39,800 --> 00:30:42,360 Fighting was inefficient. 475 00:30:42,360 --> 00:30:44,600 It meant the loss of their own men 476 00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:47,560 and of the people whose labour they could use. 477 00:30:47,560 --> 00:30:51,200 But the threat of force needed to be visible and real. 478 00:30:52,640 --> 00:30:56,800 It is a carrot and stick approach, if you like, 479 00:30:56,800 --> 00:31:00,080 of the threat of military violence, but equally, 480 00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:04,560 the promise of gaining through the authority of the Inca 481 00:31:04,560 --> 00:31:06,800 and their access to resources. 482 00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:13,240 The Inca would often arrive in a new province with a massive army, 483 00:31:13,240 --> 00:31:16,080 putting on an overwhelming display of force. 484 00:31:16,080 --> 00:31:18,600 Emissaries would be sent to local rulers, 485 00:31:18,600 --> 00:31:21,680 bearing expensive gifts of jewellery and livestock. 486 00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:24,240 These same emissaries would explain the benefits 487 00:31:24,240 --> 00:31:26,440 of joining the Inca Empire. 488 00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:29,720 If the answer was no, the Incas spared no prisoners. 489 00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:32,680 Losing generals could expect to be flayed alive. 490 00:31:34,320 --> 00:31:36,080 But if the answer was yes, 491 00:31:36,080 --> 00:31:39,360 then the people would be showered with gifts of food and drink. 492 00:31:39,360 --> 00:31:43,000 Their lords would be instructed in Quechua, the Inca language, 493 00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:45,600 and their children would be taken to Cuzco 494 00:31:45,600 --> 00:31:47,520 to learn the ways of the Empire. 495 00:31:48,880 --> 00:31:50,200 Above all, 496 00:31:50,200 --> 00:31:53,000 they would be allowed to continue to practise their own religion. 497 00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:57,600 Pachacamac is an excellent example of how the Inca 498 00:31:57,600 --> 00:32:00,520 co-opted a powerful religious shrine and incorporated it 499 00:32:00,520 --> 00:32:02,640 into the Inca imperial period. 500 00:32:02,640 --> 00:32:07,120 They probably persuaded the priests of Pachacamac to participate, 501 00:32:07,120 --> 00:32:08,720 those that would be willing. 502 00:32:08,720 --> 00:32:11,400 But they also transformed, then, Pachacamac 503 00:32:11,400 --> 00:32:14,360 from its focus as a local shrine into an Inca one. 504 00:32:14,360 --> 00:32:17,280 And that kind of melding and that kind of blending, if you will, 505 00:32:17,280 --> 00:32:20,600 of Inca ideology with local ideology was a really good example 506 00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:23,640 of the way that Inca imperialism worked. 507 00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:26,400 The tolerance demonstrated here at Pachacamac 508 00:32:26,400 --> 00:32:28,400 happened all over the Inca realm. 509 00:32:28,400 --> 00:32:31,200 And I think it goes to the heart of explaining 510 00:32:31,200 --> 00:32:33,520 how the Inca built such a large empire. 511 00:32:36,320 --> 00:32:39,120 If you submit to the rule of the Inca Empire, 512 00:32:39,120 --> 00:32:41,640 then you will be allowed to keep most of your lands, 513 00:32:41,640 --> 00:32:44,040 you'll be able to keep your social order. 514 00:32:44,040 --> 00:32:47,360 All you will have to do is to pay certain taxes to the Incas 515 00:32:47,360 --> 00:32:50,400 and we will allow you to continue to live essentially 516 00:32:50,400 --> 00:32:52,040 as you had done previously. 517 00:32:52,040 --> 00:32:54,440 It appears that many peoples in the Andes decided 518 00:32:54,440 --> 00:32:57,200 that was probably the best bet. 519 00:32:57,200 --> 00:33:00,000 There's a great intelligence about Inca power. 520 00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:02,840 Why destroy a kingdom when that will mean a heavy cost 521 00:33:02,840 --> 00:33:05,400 to you in terms of lives lost? 522 00:33:05,400 --> 00:33:09,920 Why persecute its rulers when they could help you run your empire? 523 00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:13,680 Ultimately, the Inca understood the more tightly you bound people 524 00:33:13,680 --> 00:33:16,720 to you, the more control over them you would have. 525 00:33:19,200 --> 00:33:22,680 In order to develop a larger-scale society, 526 00:33:22,680 --> 00:33:24,800 they needed to cooperate. 527 00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:27,480 And that's one of the great Inca achievements, 528 00:33:27,480 --> 00:33:29,200 is that level of cooperation. 529 00:33:29,200 --> 00:33:32,720 Now, it wasn't all love and peace, I think, but nonetheless, 530 00:33:32,720 --> 00:33:35,960 it wasn't aggression that developed into the defence of sites 531 00:33:35,960 --> 00:33:37,920 and all-out warfare. 532 00:33:37,920 --> 00:33:42,000 And I think that allowed them to expand, as they created more and 533 00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:45,040 more alliances and they could draw people together. 534 00:33:48,240 --> 00:33:53,440 In doing so, they are creating an integration 535 00:33:53,440 --> 00:33:55,960 that is different to what has gone before. 536 00:34:08,120 --> 00:34:12,800 By the late 1400s, the Inca Empire was approaching its zenith. 537 00:34:12,800 --> 00:34:17,240 The Inca were no longer one among many societies in the Andes, 538 00:34:17,240 --> 00:34:20,880 they were the dominant, highly organised culture whose influence 539 00:34:20,880 --> 00:34:24,080 stretched well beyond their Cuzco stronghold. 540 00:34:24,080 --> 00:34:30,080 But in economic terms, how did such a sprawling empire work? 541 00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:33,640 To find out, I'm heading to the remote island of Taquile, 542 00:34:33,640 --> 00:34:36,840 4,000 metres above sea level on Lake Titicaca. 543 00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:52,800 The people on Taquile live by an old code, 544 00:34:52,800 --> 00:34:55,560 which they say dates back to the Inca, 545 00:34:55,560 --> 00:34:58,840 "Ama sua, ama llulla, ama qhilla." 546 00:34:58,840 --> 00:35:01,840 "Do not steal, do not lie, do not be lazy." 547 00:35:03,720 --> 00:35:06,600 These lands were among the first the Inca conquered 548 00:35:06,600 --> 00:35:10,200 as they moved out of the Cuzco Valley. 549 00:35:10,200 --> 00:35:13,280 It's a region of vast llama and alpaca herds, 550 00:35:13,280 --> 00:35:16,600 which were a bountiful source of food, clothing and transport 551 00:35:16,600 --> 00:35:17,960 for the Inca. 552 00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:24,040 And the Incan way of life is still very much in evidence 553 00:35:24,040 --> 00:35:26,000 here on Taquile. 554 00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:29,640 An attitude of collective endeavour and mutual support. 555 00:35:33,480 --> 00:35:34,720 Ola. 556 00:35:34,720 --> 00:35:38,240 'Alejandro Flores Huatta is a community leader.' 557 00:36:09,200 --> 00:36:12,400 Alejandro's way of life may seem anachronistic, 558 00:36:12,400 --> 00:36:16,280 but at the time of the Inca, this was the norm. 559 00:36:16,280 --> 00:36:19,240 Communities were expected to give a proportion 560 00:36:19,240 --> 00:36:22,240 of their agricultural production, crafts and labour 561 00:36:22,240 --> 00:36:24,120 for the benefit of the state, 562 00:36:24,120 --> 00:36:27,440 weaving cloth for the court or working on a building project, 563 00:36:27,440 --> 00:36:29,880 just as they still do on Taquile today. 564 00:37:14,040 --> 00:37:16,440 One of the clearest examples of a difference between 565 00:37:16,440 --> 00:37:19,760 the Inca way of life and the modern one is in the economy. 566 00:37:19,760 --> 00:37:21,960 Because the Inca didn't use money, 567 00:37:21,960 --> 00:37:25,880 they didn't have an arbitrary system against which value was set. 568 00:37:25,880 --> 00:37:28,640 Instead, everything was done through exchange. 569 00:37:28,640 --> 00:37:32,560 So things like agricultural produce and craftsmanship, 570 00:37:32,560 --> 00:37:35,000 even hours of labour, could be exchanged. 571 00:37:37,120 --> 00:37:40,920 The Inca managed to persuade large numbers of people 572 00:37:40,920 --> 00:37:44,960 that they should contribute their labour to projects 573 00:37:44,960 --> 00:37:47,680 such as construction, such as agricultural work, 574 00:37:47,680 --> 00:37:49,640 such as the road system. 575 00:37:49,640 --> 00:37:55,080 And they managed to do that through a reciprocal relationship, 576 00:37:55,080 --> 00:38:00,200 one where you didn't doubt that the Inca were in control, 577 00:38:00,200 --> 00:38:04,920 but that you believed that you were getting also something out of it. 578 00:38:04,920 --> 00:38:08,560 It strikes me that, in stark contrast to many civilisations 579 00:38:08,560 --> 00:38:13,480 that had gone before them, the Inca wielded a very subtle form of power. 580 00:38:16,720 --> 00:38:20,560 They offered solutions to the harsh realities of life in the Andes 581 00:38:20,560 --> 00:38:24,240 and, in turn, asked the peoples they governed to have faith 582 00:38:24,240 --> 00:38:26,200 in the benefits of Inca rule. 583 00:38:31,280 --> 00:38:35,240 It some ways, it was quite a benevolent empire. 584 00:38:35,240 --> 00:38:39,600 Yet there was never any question about who was ultimately in charge. 585 00:38:46,120 --> 00:38:49,360 How the Inca managed to integrate so many different peoples 586 00:38:49,360 --> 00:38:53,040 into their empire whilst maintaining their dominant position 587 00:38:53,040 --> 00:38:55,520 was central to their success. 588 00:38:55,520 --> 00:38:59,480 Just a few miles from Pachacamac is a place which was built specifically 589 00:38:59,480 --> 00:39:03,480 to bring an entire people into the Inca fold 590 00:39:03,480 --> 00:39:05,880 and it brilliantly demonstrates how a society 591 00:39:05,880 --> 00:39:07,800 that didn't have any written culture 592 00:39:07,800 --> 00:39:10,760 still had ways to ensure that everyone knew their place. 593 00:39:13,360 --> 00:39:15,360 This is the site of Tambo Colorado. 594 00:39:15,360 --> 00:39:18,040 It's one of the first settlements the Inca build 595 00:39:18,040 --> 00:39:20,960 as they push westwards, down towards the Pacific Coast. 596 00:39:20,960 --> 00:39:23,840 The people who lived in this region were the Chincha. 597 00:39:23,840 --> 00:39:28,320 And the purpose of this place was to co-opt them into the empire. 598 00:39:28,320 --> 00:39:31,640 The Chincha were one of the Incas' most important allies, 599 00:39:31,640 --> 00:39:35,520 controlling large swathes of the coastal desert. 600 00:39:35,520 --> 00:39:38,920 And it's obvious that this was an important place for both 601 00:39:38,920 --> 00:39:40,560 the Chincha and the Inca, 602 00:39:40,560 --> 00:39:44,120 dominating a flat plain as the mountains give way to the coast. 603 00:39:45,800 --> 00:39:48,840 'Sofia Chacaltana Cortez is an archaeologist 604 00:39:48,840 --> 00:39:52,120 'who has studied this site extensively.' 605 00:39:52,120 --> 00:39:54,840 So this entrance, like, the whole wall comes along 606 00:39:54,840 --> 00:39:57,480 and then you've just got one small entrance into the site? 607 00:39:57,480 --> 00:39:59,960 Yeah, that's typical of Inca architecture, right? 608 00:39:59,960 --> 00:40:03,160 Like, it's an entrance that is a palace first 609 00:40:03,160 --> 00:40:07,320 and it has just one entrance and also has the Inca shape, 610 00:40:07,320 --> 00:40:09,920 the trapezoid, so... 611 00:40:09,920 --> 00:40:13,520 Wow, and then you immediately come into this sort of main plaza. 612 00:40:13,520 --> 00:40:15,760 Yeah, you have the main plaza. 613 00:40:15,760 --> 00:40:18,840 This one is the rear plaza and then you have three other plazas. 614 00:40:18,840 --> 00:40:20,720 So what sort of activities would be going on 615 00:40:20,720 --> 00:40:22,440 in this sort of main plaza, do you think? 616 00:40:22,440 --> 00:40:24,120 If people walked through those gates, 617 00:40:24,120 --> 00:40:25,640 what sort of things would they see? 618 00:40:25,640 --> 00:40:29,240 Well, probably ritual activities and also a lot of drinking. 619 00:40:29,240 --> 00:40:32,720 The Inca did a lot of drinking and displaying of power. 620 00:40:32,720 --> 00:40:37,760 But probably also that was the place where the elite could come, 621 00:40:37,760 --> 00:40:39,960 could enter the site. 622 00:40:43,240 --> 00:40:46,800 Tambo Colorado has the feel of a stage, 623 00:40:46,800 --> 00:40:48,600 a place of performance, 624 00:40:48,600 --> 00:40:51,680 where important officials would meet, where religious rituals 625 00:40:51,680 --> 00:40:55,560 would take place, against the backdrop of feasting and drinking. 626 00:40:56,840 --> 00:41:00,880 Adding to this theatrical feel are these brightly painted walls, 627 00:41:00,880 --> 00:41:05,720 whose colours have survived over five centuries of desert sun. 628 00:41:05,720 --> 00:41:08,880 It's absolutely extraordinary that you get this level of preservation 629 00:41:08,880 --> 00:41:11,360 of these pigments and paints right up to the modern day. 630 00:41:11,360 --> 00:41:13,480 I really like the idea that you sort of walk in 631 00:41:13,480 --> 00:41:15,440 from this quite barren desert landscape 632 00:41:15,440 --> 00:41:17,080 and then when you walk into this plaza, 633 00:41:17,080 --> 00:41:19,400 suddenly you're, like, overwhelmed by the colour. 634 00:41:19,400 --> 00:41:20,960 Like, brilliant colours around you 635 00:41:20,960 --> 00:41:23,960 and then you can think about that dancing and music which is going on. 636 00:41:26,640 --> 00:41:28,600 Much of what we see at Tambo Colorado 637 00:41:28,600 --> 00:41:31,280 is typical of Inca architecture. 638 00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:34,920 Yet there are striking differences in the craftsmanship here, too, 639 00:41:34,920 --> 00:41:38,960 which Sofia believes come from the influence of the Chincha. 640 00:41:38,960 --> 00:41:41,720 Something to notice, too, is the lattice work 641 00:41:41,720 --> 00:41:47,840 and the ending of the Inca spaces are not always Inca, are Chincha. 642 00:41:47,840 --> 00:41:52,320 The architect probably was Inca but the work was local 643 00:41:52,320 --> 00:41:55,640 and also probably the people that were living here 644 00:41:55,640 --> 00:41:58,680 were the Inca elite and the Chincha elite. 645 00:41:58,680 --> 00:42:01,120 It's a really difficult thing to assess, 646 00:42:01,120 --> 00:42:03,040 but do you think there's any evidence that 647 00:42:03,040 --> 00:42:05,280 the Chincha and Inca are working cooperatively, 648 00:42:05,280 --> 00:42:08,080 rather than sort of like a dominating workforce, forcing them, 649 00:42:08,080 --> 00:42:09,960 do you see any evidence of collaboration? 650 00:42:09,960 --> 00:42:12,520 Well, we are seeing here is like, I think, 651 00:42:12,520 --> 00:42:14,640 the synthesis of the government. 652 00:42:14,640 --> 00:42:16,920 Like, after they have, like, worked together. 653 00:42:16,920 --> 00:42:18,600 I think this is like a... 654 00:42:18,600 --> 00:42:22,760 probably like a Chincha... an Inca-Chincha palace, right? 655 00:42:22,760 --> 00:42:25,560 It's not only Inca, it's not Chincha, 656 00:42:25,560 --> 00:42:28,360 it's saying, like, "We are cooperating." 657 00:42:32,400 --> 00:42:34,760 The merging of architectural styles 658 00:42:34,760 --> 00:42:38,800 signals the joining of two kingdoms, Inca and Chincha. 659 00:42:38,800 --> 00:42:42,880 Tambo Colorado was the place which marked an important alliance 660 00:42:42,880 --> 00:42:45,920 in material form, but not an alliance of equals... 661 00:42:49,120 --> 00:42:52,640 ..because there are subtle levers of control here. 662 00:42:52,640 --> 00:42:54,200 Away from the plazas, 663 00:42:54,200 --> 00:42:58,120 Tambo Colorado is a maze of complex and confusing corridors. 664 00:42:58,120 --> 00:43:00,520 Hidden rooms and secret spaces. 665 00:43:01,960 --> 00:43:05,960 The architecture dictates how you travel around the site. 666 00:43:05,960 --> 00:43:08,360 Even the beautiful, brightly coloured walls 667 00:43:08,360 --> 00:43:09,840 had a controlling purpose, 668 00:43:09,840 --> 00:43:13,200 marking out areas of access according to rank. 669 00:43:15,280 --> 00:43:18,880 The yellow colour is representing the higher status. 670 00:43:18,880 --> 00:43:21,840 The lower status will be the white, 671 00:43:21,840 --> 00:43:24,600 that will represent the intermediate elite 672 00:43:24,600 --> 00:43:27,040 and the red will represent the locals. 673 00:43:28,240 --> 00:43:31,080 The colour scheme was designed to mark places 674 00:43:31,080 --> 00:43:34,160 where only the Inca were allowed. 675 00:43:34,160 --> 00:43:36,960 A lot of Tambo Colorado would have been off limits 676 00:43:36,960 --> 00:43:38,560 to the Chincha population. 677 00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:43,000 So these corridors are fantastic. 678 00:43:43,000 --> 00:43:45,760 They have this sort of real sense of restricted space. Yes. 679 00:43:45,760 --> 00:43:48,440 And they go to imperial spaces. 680 00:43:48,440 --> 00:43:52,760 We will see these Inca spaces, like the font, the Inca font, 681 00:43:52,760 --> 00:43:56,240 and there is an Inca way of purifying your body. 682 00:43:56,240 --> 00:43:58,840 To what extent do you think these architectural forms, 683 00:43:58,840 --> 00:44:02,760 these spaces, are a mechanism for the Inca Empire to sort of control 684 00:44:02,760 --> 00:44:05,440 people's behaviour and influence their experience 685 00:44:05,440 --> 00:44:07,040 of coming into them? 686 00:44:07,040 --> 00:44:09,840 Well, I think this is to control people's behaviour 687 00:44:09,840 --> 00:44:12,720 and also to show how to behave as an Inca, right? 688 00:44:12,720 --> 00:44:15,240 Because we are far away from the... 689 00:44:15,240 --> 00:44:16,840 from the capital. 690 00:44:16,840 --> 00:44:20,800 So I think also is showing what is the Inca behaviour, right? 691 00:44:20,800 --> 00:44:23,560 To behave as an Inca, I think, was an important part 692 00:44:23,560 --> 00:44:24,960 of the Inca government. 693 00:44:28,760 --> 00:44:30,480 I think it's cooperation also, 694 00:44:30,480 --> 00:44:34,160 but with the foot on top, kind of like that. 695 00:44:40,200 --> 00:44:41,840 It's great chatting to Sofia 696 00:44:41,840 --> 00:44:45,560 about how Inca architecture controls people's behaviour here. 697 00:44:45,560 --> 00:44:46,800 And more than that, 698 00:44:46,800 --> 00:44:50,280 communicates it to all the people moving up and down this valley. 699 00:44:50,280 --> 00:44:52,680 Inca architecture is so much more 700 00:44:52,680 --> 00:44:55,560 than the construction of imposing buildings. 701 00:44:55,560 --> 00:44:58,360 Architecture, like religion or agriculture, 702 00:44:58,360 --> 00:45:00,640 is a source of Inca power. 703 00:45:06,480 --> 00:45:10,280 All the elements that made Inca power so dominating and seductive 704 00:45:10,280 --> 00:45:12,800 came together in one city... 705 00:45:12,800 --> 00:45:15,280 Cuzco, high in the Andes. 706 00:45:16,680 --> 00:45:20,760 Cuzco was the most important city in the entirety of the Americas. 707 00:45:22,000 --> 00:45:23,760 It was the Inca homeland 708 00:45:23,760 --> 00:45:26,920 and the political and spiritual heart of their empire. 709 00:45:28,160 --> 00:45:30,880 And in the heart of Cuzco sat one person... 710 00:45:30,880 --> 00:45:32,360 the Sapa Inca. 711 00:45:34,400 --> 00:45:36,080 The ruler of the Inca Empire 712 00:45:36,080 --> 00:45:39,240 was a person called the Sapa Inca or Unique Lord. 713 00:45:39,240 --> 00:45:44,560 He embodied all the dimensions of leadership within the Inca society. 714 00:45:44,560 --> 00:45:48,120 He was the political ruler, in part because he was the descendant 715 00:45:48,120 --> 00:45:50,560 of the previous Sapa Inca. 716 00:45:50,560 --> 00:45:52,760 He was also the military leader 717 00:45:52,760 --> 00:45:55,520 and he was the person who made decisions about everything 718 00:45:55,520 --> 00:45:57,520 that was of significance in society, 719 00:45:57,520 --> 00:46:00,560 whether economic, ritual, or whatever. 720 00:46:00,560 --> 00:46:03,080 It was all focused on a single individual. 721 00:46:06,480 --> 00:46:09,720 The Sapa Inca was the most powerful man in the empire 722 00:46:09,720 --> 00:46:12,520 and was treated with immense reverence. 723 00:46:13,840 --> 00:46:17,120 He communicated via intermediaries. 724 00:46:17,120 --> 00:46:21,000 No-one dared look him directly in the eye. 725 00:46:21,000 --> 00:46:23,560 Disobedience was punishable by death. 726 00:46:27,040 --> 00:46:32,120 I guess you could probably call him a benevolent dictator in some ways. 727 00:46:32,120 --> 00:46:35,800 The Sapa Inca was not a very accessible personage, 728 00:46:35,800 --> 00:46:39,000 but he was also expected to be a charismatic leader, 729 00:46:39,000 --> 00:46:43,960 a figure who could change the world when necessary. 730 00:46:44,960 --> 00:46:49,240 The greatest of all Inca emperors was Pachacuti, 731 00:46:49,240 --> 00:46:55,160 whose name literally means "he who overturns space and time". 732 00:46:55,160 --> 00:46:59,240 Pachacuti is a mythical hero to many modern day Peruvians. 733 00:46:59,240 --> 00:47:01,120 The story goes that he was a prince, 734 00:47:01,120 --> 00:47:04,600 living here in Cuzco in the early to mid-15th century, 735 00:47:04,600 --> 00:47:06,760 when the city was attacked by the Chanka, 736 00:47:06,760 --> 00:47:10,000 a people who came from 150km to the west. 737 00:47:10,000 --> 00:47:14,280 Pachakuti's father, the ruler, took his entire court and fled the city, 738 00:47:14,280 --> 00:47:19,120 but Pachacuti defiantly remained and led a divinely inspired resistance 739 00:47:19,120 --> 00:47:21,240 to the Chanka, crushing them. 740 00:47:21,240 --> 00:47:25,040 He then led a series of Inca expansions away from the homeland, 741 00:47:25,040 --> 00:47:27,600 laying the foundations of the Inca Empire. 742 00:47:30,400 --> 00:47:35,000 But the root of Pachacuti's rule and the authority of all the Sapa Incas 743 00:47:35,000 --> 00:47:37,680 lay in their position as semi-divine figures. 744 00:47:39,560 --> 00:47:42,160 To understand how the Sapa Inca operated, 745 00:47:42,160 --> 00:47:45,800 we have to think of him in several dimensions. 746 00:47:45,800 --> 00:47:48,680 He was, in some senses, very much a human being, 747 00:47:48,680 --> 00:47:52,320 but the Incas considered him to be the descendant of Inti, 748 00:47:52,320 --> 00:47:57,400 the Sun God, so in Inca ideology, he was a deity on Earth. 749 00:48:00,840 --> 00:48:04,880 While the Inca allowed their subjects to worship their own gods, 750 00:48:04,880 --> 00:48:08,680 they would always be subservient to their own Sun God, Inti. 751 00:48:09,760 --> 00:48:13,320 The Inca built temples of the sun wherever they conquered. 752 00:48:16,120 --> 00:48:18,720 This emphasised the emperor's connection 753 00:48:18,720 --> 00:48:20,720 to the most powerful god in the sky. 754 00:48:22,720 --> 00:48:26,680 It also connected Inca power with the cosmos itself. 755 00:48:26,680 --> 00:48:29,840 In this way, the Inca used religious reverence 756 00:48:29,840 --> 00:48:31,560 as a powerful political tool. 757 00:48:33,240 --> 00:48:36,480 Inca religion is probably best thought of as part 758 00:48:36,480 --> 00:48:38,920 of an over-arching imperial ideology. 759 00:48:38,920 --> 00:48:42,240 It had its political elements, it had its religious elements, 760 00:48:42,240 --> 00:48:47,000 it had its practice, it had its military and cosmological elements. 761 00:48:47,000 --> 00:48:48,920 So the idea of religion, per se, 762 00:48:48,920 --> 00:48:51,520 probably would not have made sense to the Incas. 763 00:48:51,520 --> 00:48:53,760 They would have thought of it as an integrated part 764 00:48:53,760 --> 00:48:58,480 of the sanctity of the ruler, of his legitimacy to civilise the Andes, 765 00:48:58,480 --> 00:49:01,280 of his role as a political and military figure. 766 00:49:04,000 --> 00:49:07,920 Here, at the temple of Qorikancha, the holiest spot in the empire, 767 00:49:07,920 --> 00:49:10,120 the Sapa Inca would hold court. 768 00:49:12,120 --> 00:49:15,800 This entire complex would once have been encased in gold. 769 00:49:16,800 --> 00:49:21,160 All that remains today is this beautiful curved stone wall. 770 00:49:21,160 --> 00:49:22,960 But despite its destruction 771 00:49:22,960 --> 00:49:26,360 and the construction of a Christian church on top of it, 772 00:49:26,360 --> 00:49:29,200 the Qorikancha still feels very much like 773 00:49:29,200 --> 00:49:31,200 the spiritual heart of Inca Cuzco. 774 00:49:33,400 --> 00:49:36,840 The Qorikancha was at the centre of the Inca world. 775 00:49:36,840 --> 00:49:40,440 It was thought that, from here, dozens of ceques, or ley lines, 776 00:49:40,440 --> 00:49:45,200 spread across the empire, upon which shrines and temples would be built. 777 00:49:45,200 --> 00:49:48,320 So this religious complex was connected physically 778 00:49:48,320 --> 00:49:51,920 and psychologically with every corner of the empire. 779 00:49:54,760 --> 00:49:59,200 The Inca used religion to project the idea of their empire 780 00:49:59,200 --> 00:50:03,480 over the lands they controlled and to the people they ruled. 781 00:50:03,480 --> 00:50:07,120 These ley lines radiated across the landscape, 782 00:50:07,120 --> 00:50:09,880 creating a spiritual map of the empire 783 00:50:09,880 --> 00:50:13,400 which would have been understood by people from the forests of Ecuador 784 00:50:13,400 --> 00:50:16,200 to the high plateaux and peaks of the Andes, 785 00:50:16,200 --> 00:50:18,560 and from Cuzco to the coast. 786 00:50:21,520 --> 00:50:25,240 You have to picture this as a countryside which is animated, 787 00:50:25,240 --> 00:50:31,080 it's alive with different special places, 788 00:50:31,080 --> 00:50:34,320 places which are associated with supernatural powers. 789 00:50:34,320 --> 00:50:37,400 And so an unusual rock, a pass, 790 00:50:37,400 --> 00:50:40,080 a curve in a road, a waterfall... 791 00:50:41,480 --> 00:50:47,120 ..any noteworthy landmark on the landscape could be considered 792 00:50:47,120 --> 00:50:50,000 what the Incas called a huaca, or a shrine. 793 00:50:51,400 --> 00:50:57,880 And on very specific days of the year, pilgrimages would be made. 794 00:50:57,880 --> 00:51:03,080 Different kin groups would line up along different lines 795 00:51:03,080 --> 00:51:08,240 and march out to each of the shrines, making offerings to them. 796 00:51:08,240 --> 00:51:09,680 For the Inca, 797 00:51:09,680 --> 00:51:14,120 this was an empire of the mind as much as a physical empire, 798 00:51:14,120 --> 00:51:18,000 held together by thousands of shrines and invisible ley lines 799 00:51:18,000 --> 00:51:20,680 as much as by garrisons or military power. 800 00:51:23,840 --> 00:51:27,960 But an empire still needs physical bonds. 801 00:51:27,960 --> 00:51:29,760 By the end of the 15th century, 802 00:51:29,760 --> 00:51:34,160 the Inca Empire was approaching its greatest extent, 803 00:51:34,160 --> 00:51:37,280 reaching from southern Ecuador eastwards to Bolivia 804 00:51:37,280 --> 00:51:39,200 and into northern Argentina. 805 00:51:43,360 --> 00:51:46,960 It was criss-crossed by 40,000km of roads. 806 00:51:48,840 --> 00:51:50,520 There were two main roads, 807 00:51:50,520 --> 00:51:52,600 one running from Cuzco to Quito, 808 00:51:52,600 --> 00:51:55,520 the other running parallel along the coast. 809 00:51:55,520 --> 00:51:58,360 Between these were dozens of connecting roads and spurs, 810 00:51:58,360 --> 00:52:00,680 heading south and east. 811 00:52:04,440 --> 00:52:09,880 This road system is one of the most famous elements of the Inca Empire. 812 00:52:09,880 --> 00:52:13,600 But much of this network almost certainly predates the Inca. 813 00:52:14,760 --> 00:52:18,280 Once again, they took what they found and up-scaled it. 814 00:52:19,880 --> 00:52:21,960 Some parts of that road system 815 00:52:21,960 --> 00:52:25,160 existed at least since the Wari Empire, 816 00:52:25,160 --> 00:52:27,440 but the Inca develop it. 817 00:52:27,440 --> 00:52:30,080 They reconstruct large parts of it. 818 00:52:30,080 --> 00:52:33,960 They construct bridges and causeways to integrate it 819 00:52:33,960 --> 00:52:36,360 and they redirect some roads. 820 00:52:36,360 --> 00:52:39,280 This is a huge investment for them. 821 00:52:43,040 --> 00:52:46,760 The Inca road system was a triumph of architecture and planning. 822 00:52:49,520 --> 00:52:52,640 The roads had to pass through a variety of landscapes, 823 00:52:52,640 --> 00:52:56,120 from arid desert, to snowy mountains, to vertical cliffs. 824 00:52:57,560 --> 00:53:00,160 They could be anything from one to ten metres wide. 825 00:53:02,000 --> 00:53:06,000 In the desert, they were protected from dusty winds by raised stones. 826 00:53:06,000 --> 00:53:09,480 In the mountains, they were designed to allow for run-off and drainage. 827 00:53:11,560 --> 00:53:15,240 And when the terrain made conventional roads impossible, 828 00:53:15,240 --> 00:53:18,560 the Inca once again came up with an ingenious solution. 829 00:53:21,760 --> 00:53:24,480 This is the stunning Keshwa Chaca bridge. 830 00:53:24,480 --> 00:53:26,880 It's made out of only this, straw. 831 00:53:26,880 --> 00:53:29,000 And it's been in use for hundreds of years, 832 00:53:29,000 --> 00:53:31,880 dating right back to the Inca period. 833 00:53:31,880 --> 00:53:35,760 This bridge still serves as a major crossing of the Apurimac River. 834 00:53:37,200 --> 00:53:40,960 It is carefully maintained by the four communities who live here. 835 00:53:41,960 --> 00:53:43,200 Ola. 836 00:53:43,200 --> 00:53:45,880 'Among the workers is Dante Quispe Locuber.' 837 00:54:26,640 --> 00:54:31,360 The roads allowed the Inca to travel swiftly and communicate efficiently 838 00:54:31,360 --> 00:54:33,520 throughout their vast empire. 839 00:54:33,520 --> 00:54:37,280 It's estimated a message could be carried from Cuzco to Quito, 840 00:54:37,280 --> 00:54:41,600 a distance of 1,500km, in just five days. 841 00:54:41,600 --> 00:54:46,120 But seeing Dante and his comrades at work, it strikes me that the roads 842 00:54:46,120 --> 00:54:48,880 were about much more than just communication, 843 00:54:48,880 --> 00:54:50,920 more than just getting from A to B. 844 00:54:51,920 --> 00:54:54,440 This network was a psychological tool, 845 00:54:54,440 --> 00:54:56,080 as well as a physical one. 846 00:54:57,120 --> 00:55:00,680 These roads and bridges were a constant reminder to communities 847 00:55:00,680 --> 00:55:04,120 all over the Andes that they were part of something bigger. 848 00:55:06,320 --> 00:55:11,600 It probably provided an ideological mechanism of integration, 849 00:55:11,600 --> 00:55:14,360 so that in constructing that road system, 850 00:55:14,360 --> 00:55:19,880 you could not but be aware that you were integrating Cuzco with the coast. 851 00:55:19,880 --> 00:55:22,320 You were a part of empire. 852 00:55:22,320 --> 00:55:26,440 We must remember that there is no idea of a map of the Inca Empire. 853 00:55:26,440 --> 00:55:30,440 It is largely through the connection of individual places, 854 00:55:30,440 --> 00:55:33,600 through roads and track ways and though ceremonial 855 00:55:33,600 --> 00:55:36,560 and ritual activities that the Inca Empire holds together. 856 00:55:41,200 --> 00:55:43,160 The network was so vast 857 00:55:43,160 --> 00:55:46,200 that new parts of it are still being uncovered today. 858 00:55:50,360 --> 00:55:52,360 This is a newly discovered road. 859 00:55:52,360 --> 00:55:55,680 It's absolutely extraordinary, it clings to the side of the cliff 860 00:55:55,680 --> 00:55:58,840 with a 300 metre drop-off down to the river below. 861 00:56:07,080 --> 00:56:09,640 These roads are about more than just travel. 862 00:56:09,640 --> 00:56:13,000 They are the physical ties that bind the empire together 863 00:56:13,000 --> 00:56:15,120 and underpin Inca power. 864 00:56:15,120 --> 00:56:18,560 Armies, food and livestock can move quickly along them. 865 00:56:18,560 --> 00:56:21,160 No matter where you are in the empire, 866 00:56:21,160 --> 00:56:23,760 you're never far from a road that leads to Cuzco. 867 00:56:23,760 --> 00:56:27,560 And that proximity means Inca power is ever-present, 868 00:56:27,560 --> 00:56:29,720 no matter which corner of the empire you're in. 869 00:56:35,080 --> 00:56:38,560 This road leads down to Machu Picchu. 870 00:56:38,560 --> 00:56:41,440 It isn't on any of the tourist itineraries 871 00:56:41,440 --> 00:56:44,280 and it may not be as celebrated as what lies below. 872 00:56:45,360 --> 00:56:50,320 But it is part of the same empire, built by the same people 873 00:56:50,320 --> 00:56:55,920 and is, in its own way, just as important as that iconic Inca ruin. 874 00:56:55,920 --> 00:56:59,720 From a western perspective, ancient empires are lauded 875 00:56:59,720 --> 00:57:04,880 for victorious battles, ingenious systems of governance and control, 876 00:57:04,880 --> 00:57:09,440 territorial expansion and domination through generations. 877 00:57:09,440 --> 00:57:12,120 The Inca achieved all this and more. 878 00:57:26,840 --> 00:57:29,120 If we define power as the ability 879 00:57:29,120 --> 00:57:32,240 to control people's actions and behaviour, 880 00:57:32,240 --> 00:57:35,960 then I think we have a tremendous amount to learn from the Inca, 881 00:57:35,960 --> 00:57:40,120 because force was just one small tool in their armoury. 882 00:57:40,120 --> 00:57:42,960 To give people the sense of freewill, 883 00:57:42,960 --> 00:57:45,360 to make the decisions that you want them to make - 884 00:57:45,360 --> 00:57:47,560 that is the source of true power. 885 00:57:47,560 --> 00:57:50,800 And the scale at which the Inca did it was extraordinary. 886 00:57:56,480 --> 00:57:59,000 But as the Inca reached their zenith, 887 00:57:59,000 --> 00:58:02,440 they would be visited by foreign soldiers from across the ocean. 888 00:58:03,720 --> 00:58:08,600 These Spanish conquistadors had a very different concept of power. 889 00:58:08,600 --> 00:58:13,000 And their determination to build an empire of their own in this land 890 00:58:13,000 --> 00:58:15,880 would lead to a catastrophic clash 891 00:58:15,880 --> 00:58:18,880 of two completely different cultures.