http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/F6DD691D-852...1-91D94A265189/

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Conquistadors from Spain came, they saw and they were astonished. They had never seen anything in Europe like the bridges of Peru. Chroniclers wrote that the Spanish soldiers stood in awe and fear before the spans of braided fiber cables suspended across deep gorges in the Andes, narrow walkways sagging and swaying and looking so frail.

Dr. Ochsendorf, a specialist in early architecture and engineering, said the colonial government tried many times to erect European arch bridges across the canyons, and each attempt ended in fiasco until iron and steel were applied to bridge building. The Peruvians, knowing nothing of the arch or iron metallurgy, instead relied on what they knew best, fibers from cotton, grasses and saplings, and llama and alpaca wool.

“If people use materials in different ways in different societies, that tells you something about those people,” Professor Lechtman said.

Do the Inca ... then, rate as a civilization???

Do the Inca ... then, rate as a civilization???

Governments of the west are reluctant to apply the term " civilization " to any race they had a hand in exterminating . It is far better to slaughter ignorent pagan savages than civilized ppl.

Yes, they do.

Click Here.


Please keep your ignorant comments to yourself.

The VAST majority of civilizations (by the anthropologist's definition) that have existed on Earth have been what you would refer to as "ignorant pagan savages."

Other folks usually don't take such an elitist approach.

Apparently to you, it is an either-or proposition. Sorry to be the one to tell you that you have exposed just how ignorant of the facts you actually are.

Harte

Do you understand the concept of sarcasm.I in no way believe there are 'pagan savages just human beings.... Dehumanising people with labels that make them sound less human is an ages old propaganda trick by those in charge to quiet peoples revulsion at the slaughter . So next time you jump up on your soap box and start attacking people make sure you have it right ......and if you dont believe that the Inca sand other Sth American Natives were decimated by the West (mostly Spain i that part of the world ) then best read some histories ..like Cortez

Governments of the west are reluctant to apply the term " civilization " to any race they had a hand in exterminating . It is far better to slaughter ignorent pagan savages than civilized ppl.

"This find may form part of a series of galleries, chambers, fountains and ancient mausoleums located under the ancient Incan city of Cuzco."

A tunnel measuring 2 km in length, linking the Koricancha temple with the fortress of Sacsayhuaman, located on the outskirts of the Peruvian city of Cuzco, was discovered by Spanish archaeologist Anselm Pi Rambla, in the ancient Inca capital. The tunnel may form part of a series of galleries, chambers, fountains and ancient mausoleums which are probably under the city of Cuzco, according to measurments made by Pi Rambla as part of the Wiracocha Project, initiated in August 2000.

interesting.. modern day suspension bridges might have been founded through the Inca's knowledge on bridges.

Please keep your ignorant comments to yourself.

This is what i would say is a 'condescending' attitude!!
well, well.....this is UM..everyone got a right to say their point, dont we?? This is not anyone's personal topic!!

Whoa, calm. Shh. He wasn't calling anyone ignorant pagan savages. He was saying that the "Man" of the western world doesn't like saying that those they exterminated were of any value, calling them savages and otherwise profane names instead of acknowledging that they might be intelligent people.

He most certainly not attacking anthropology.

(I'm interpreting his post, and I may be wrong. Correct me if I am, bbthomo.)

~whining~ Can't we all just get along and maybe analyze some orbs or something?

lol

...they lept....

The Peruvians apparently invented their fiber bridges independently of outside influences, Ochsendorf said, but these bridges were neither the first of their kind in the world nor the inspiration for the modern suspension bridge like the George Washington and Verrazano-Narrows Bridges in New York and the Golden Gate in San Francisco.

In a recent research paper, Ochsendorf wrote: "The Inca were the only ancient American civilization to develop suspension bridges. Similar bridges existed in other mountainous regions of the world, most notably in the Himalayas and in ancient China, where iron chain suspension bridges existed in the 3rd century B.C."

The first of the modern versions was erected in Britain in the late 18th century, the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The longest one today connects two islands in Japan, with a span of more than 6,000 feet from tower to supporting tower. These bridges are really "hanging roadways," Ochsendorf said, to provide a fairly level surface for wheeled traffic.

In his authoritative 1984 book, "The Inka Road System," John Hyslop, who was an official of the Institute of Andean Research and associated with the American Museum of Natural History, compiled descriptions of the Inca bridges recorded by early travelers.

Garcilasco de la Vega, in 1604, reported on the cable-making techniques. The fibers, he wrote, were braided into ropes of the length necessary for the bridge. Three of these ropes were woven together to make a larger rope, and three of them were again braided to make a still larger rope, and so on. The thick cables were pulled across the river with small ropes and attached to stone abutments on each side.

The construction of these bridges amounted to a pair of stone anchors on each side of the canyon with massive cables of woven ichu grass linking these two pylons together. Adding to this construction, two additional cables acted as guardrails. The cables which supported the foot-path were reinforced with plaited branches. This multi-structure system made these bridges strong enough to even carry the Spaniards while riding horses after they arrived. However, these massive bridges were so heavy that they tended to sag in the middle, and this caused them to sway in high winds.

Part of the bridge's strength and reliability came from the fact that each cable was replaced every year by local villagers as part of their mita public service or obligation. In some instances, these local peasants had the sole task of maintaining and repairing these bridges so that the Inca highways or road systems could continue to function.

The greatest bridges of this kind resided in the Apurimac Canyon along the main road north from Cuzco. These bridges spread in length across the 220 feet (67 m) canyon and are 118 feet (36 m) above the river.





Renewing the last bridge


After a full year of use the last Inca grass-rope bridge sags and must be replaced for safety. Even though there is a modern bridge nearby the folk in the region keep the ancient tradition and skills alive by renewing the bridge. Several family groups have each prepared a number of grass-ropes to be formed into cables at the site, others have prepared mats for decking, and the reconstruction is a communal effort. In ancient times the effort would have been a form of tax, with participants coerced to perform the rebuilding; nowadays the builders have indicated that effort is performed to honor their ancestors and the Pachamama (Earth Mother). The event has also been supported by video productions for Nova and the BBC and is becoming a minor tourist attraction, with some small tolls charged for tourists to use the road during the festival to walk the newly completed bridge. There is, however, no consistent or guaranteed support for these efforts and tourism remains a relatively minor motivation for the bridge rebuilding[

<a href="http://hometown.aol.com/caneypath2/24generation.html" target="_blank">http://hometown.aol.com/caneypath2/24generation.html</a>
The graceful construction of ancient Inca bridges provides a sacred analogy of the task of the warriors who are destined to usher the human species accross the chasm of oblivion and into the hope-filled future beyond the era of GREAT EARTH CHANGES that approaches in the year 2012. Cables and stones they are. They are hundreds of powerful shamanic individuals filled with the flexibility and strength of the fibres that are woven together by Inca bridge-makers to span the mighty gorge, and twenty four anchor stones who will shoulder the burden of holding the whole construct in place. These anchor stones are the "SIBA RAKAN", Stones of Power. The hundreds of mighty cables that form the suspesion cords are the spiritual individuals who form the sinews and muscles of the sacred structures. They are called "KABUYA RAKAN", Cords or Power.

Absurd, but not absurd enough. This is UM after all. Surely reptilians and/or Annunaki and/or Atlanteans and/or government 9/11 coverup agents picked the Inca up and flew them over the canyons. Duuh.

Also the similarity between the pyramids in south America and Egypt can not be ignored. I suspect that some sort of trading relationship at one point existed between these peoples.

Its sad that the Aztecs and Incas were taken over by the Spanish. They were both truly amazing civilizations.

I Think the Spaniards saw how great they were and that they had the capability to surpass them someday that they decided to get rid of them..