When the Spanish Conquerors first reached Cuzco, they were amazed at the quality of the roads. Several chroniclers wrote of the roads, and even Hernando Pizarro, one of the first conquerors to reach Cuzco, was unable to hide his admiration in the following letter:
"The highland road is something to see, because in such rough country, in all Christianity one cannot see such fine roads, mainly paved. Every stream is bridged by a stone or wooden bridge. We crossed a large, fast-flowing river twice over a rope bridge that was a wonder to see".
Agustín de Zárate wrote the following in his Historia del Descubrimiento y Conquista del Perú :
"When Huayna Cápac went from Cuzco to Quito, which lies at a distance of 500 leagues, he had a road built all across the mountains, very wide and flat, breaking and flattening the peaks wherever it was necessary. The road runs like that for 500 leagues."
Many of these roads were so well built that they are still used today.
Hiram Bingham (1875-1956) led the Peruvian Expeditions from Yale University in 1911-1912 and 1914-1915, in which the 'lost' Inca cities of Machu Picchu and Vitcos were discovered anew, Bingham had believed that what he had uncovered was Vilcabamba, the final refuge of Manco Inca, dispute has arisen over these findings, as other ruins appear to have a firmer claim to the title. Bingham invented most of the names of the sites on the Inca Trail.
The Inca roads or Cápac Ñan, are one of the engineering marvels of the Tahuantinsuyo, according to Peruvian historian José Antonio del Busto: "Huayna Capac was the monarch who did most work on the road network, building and upgrading many roads in the empire. It is said he placed emphasis on the roads so as to be able to get his army around quicker and be able to crush the rebellions that flared up during his reign." That was why his reign ended with 16,000 kilometers of roads.
The Inca roads were built by men who trekked through the mountains and now and then used llamas, although it was often difficult. To the Spaniards most of the Inca roads were ineffective, as their horses stumbled on the stairways and got their hooves stuck in the stonework. It would have been impossible for coaches and wagons to have made use of the roads.
The full Inca Trail is approximately 40km long, and when spread over a duration of 4 days, this amounts to the tolerable amount of five hours walking per day.
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