THE STARGATE OF HAYU MARCA.

A huge mysterious door-like structure in the Hayu Marca mountain region of Southern Peru near Lake Titicaca, and hour drive from the city of Puno, has long been revered by the locals as the "City of the Gods." The door has been carved out of a natural rock face and in all measures exactly 23' in height and width, with a smaller alcove in the center at the base which measures 6' in height.
The remote area is known as a Valley of the Spirits, or Stone Forest, made of strange rock formations that resemble animals, beings, buildings, dinosaurs, and artificial structures.
The local people of the region had a legend that spoke of a 'Gateway to the Land of the Gods', and in that legend, it was said that in times long past great heroes had gone to join their gods, and passed through the gate for a glorious new life of immortality, and on a very rare occasions those men returned for a very short time with their gods to inspect all the lands in the kingdom, through the gate.
Dreams about the use of the doorway appears to be common by the local population and in them they see a pathway made of light colored marble, with a small door open with a brilliant blue/white light coming from what looked like a shimmering tunnel. Others see that the Gate is made of two doorways, almost in a T shape. The larger door is for the gods themselves and the smaller door is for the mortals, to pass through.
Another legend of a mortal passing through the doorway appears to lend credibility to the alleged dreams of the locals about the gate. The legend tells of the time when European invaders arrived in Peru in the 16th CE, looting Inca sacred places taking their gold and precious stones along their way.
One Inca priest fled his temple with a sacred golden disk known as "the Key of the Gods of the Seven rays," and hid in the mountains of Hayu Marca. The priest eventually came upon the gate which was being watched by shaman priests. He presented to them the golden disk, and a ritual was performed immediately by them, with the conclusion of a supernatural occurrence initiated by the golden disk which opened the portal, and behind it was a tunnel that shone with an intense blue/white light. The priest handed the golden disk to the shaman priests and then passed through the portal and never to be seen again.
Investigators have observed a small, round, hand sized, circular indention in the rock on the right hand column of the small entrance doorway. The examinations led them to believe that should a disk shaped object be inserted into the indention, it would be held in place by the surrounding rock.
It is interesting to note that the structure resembles the Gate of the Sun at Tiahuanaco and 5 other archaeological sites which link together a cross by an imaginary straight lines crossing each other exactly at the point where the plateau and Lake Titicaca are located.  Locals report glowing blue spheres and bright white and rainbow-colored objects sighted over the Lake.
The aforementioned legend concludes with a prophecy that the door of the gods will one day open many times bigger than it actually is, and allow the gods to return in their Sun Ships and all the Americas once united by a common spiritual tradition and leader, will be again reunited in the same spirit.
Peru is a land steeped in ancient prophecies and wisdom. Life in the inca Empire was measured by a 1000 year cosmic cycle called an Inti (Sun). This cycle was then divided into halves, each of which was referred to as a Pachacutec.
The cosmological vision of the Andean world is the conception of duality that is in permanent opposition, but complementary. The same principle applies to each Pachacutec. However, Pachacutec also is used to refer to the transitional time that divided each Pachacutec and this is characterized as a time of great changes.
During the 500 years of the 8th Pachacutec cycle, Pachacutec, the greatest leader of the Incas, ruled. This was a time of Light when the Inca Empire flourished and there were expansion and good fortune. The 9th Pachacutec cycle, on the opposite side of the duality, brought with it the 500 years of darkness when the European invaders looted the land and its resources. We are now entering the 10th Pachacutec cycle, which the local people refer to as the returning to Light, and the sacred Solar Disk is going to be re-activated accessing the cosmic wisdom and reaching again a higher level of spiritual consciousness making the Andean people flourish again but this time in the spiritual realm.

ANDEAN MYTH ABOUT THE TIME BEFORE CREATION.

There is no single creation story among Andean peoples. Some tales hold that the Earth was created by the Most Powerful of the Gods of the Spirit World, others that particular and powerful entities were created by the Most Powerful of the Gods to be in charge of His House.
There was a time when everything was still, and all was dark. There was no life, no death.
All the spirits of the earth were asleep -or almost all, and the earth was a bare plain. The spirits of the sun, moon, and the stars slept beneath the earth. All the eternal ancestors slept there, too.
The great Father of All Spirits was the only one awake. Gently he awoke the spirit of the Cosmic Sun Mother. As she opened her eyes a warm ray of light spread out towards the sleeping earth.
The Father of All Spirits said to the Cosmic Sun Mother, "Mother, I have work for you. Go down the Earth plane and awake the sleeping spirits of the eternal ancestors, and give them forms." They woke themselves out of their own eternity and broke through to the surface and wandered the earth plane waiting for the Cosmic Sun Mother.
The Cosmic Sun Mother glided down to Earth plane, which was bare at that time and began to walk in all directions and everywhere she walked spirited plants grew. After returning to the field where she had begun her work the Cosmic Sun Mother rested, well pleased with herself.
The Father of All Spirits came and saw her work, but instructed her to go into the caves and wake the spirits that were sleeping inside them. This time the Cosmic Sun Mother ventured into the dark caves on the mountainsides, created in the spirited world. The bright light that radiated from her awoke the spirits and after she left insects of all kinds flew out of the caves. The Cosmic Sun Mother sat down and watched the glorious sight of her insects mingling with her flowers, having a mind on their own.
However once again the Father of All the Spirits urged her on. This time the Cosmic Sun Mother ventured into a very deep cave, spreading her light around her spirit. Heat from the Mother melted the ice and the rivers and streams of the Cosmic World were created.
Then the Cosmic Sun Mother created the cosmic minds of fish and small snakes, lizards and frogs. Then she awoke the cosmic spirits of the birds and animals and they burst into the sunshine in a glorious array of colors to mingle with the cosmic minds of the ones already created by her.
Seeing this the Father of All Spirits was pleased with the Cosmic Sun Mother's work. She called all her creatures to her and instructed them to enjoy the wealth of the earth plane and to live peacefully with one another. Then she rose into the sky and became the celestial Sun.
The living creatures watched the Sun in awe as she crept across the sky, towards the West. However when she finally sunk beneath the horizon they were panic-stricken, thinking she had deserted them.
All night they stood frozen in their places, thinking that the end of time had come. After what seemed to them a lifetime the Sun Mother peeked her head above the horizon in the East. Their children learned to expect her coming and going in the seasonal cycle's she formed, and were no longer afraid.
At first the children lived together peaceful, in complete harmony, but eventually envy crept into their spirited hearts. They began to argue and, harmony was broken forming two opposed natures in the Cosmical World.
Darkness appeared again and engulfed everything but the powerful Light from the Cosmic Sun Mother prevailed in the heart of all the children that loved the time of peace and harmony that they once had.
The duality of the cosmic forces were born due to the conflict and formed itself two entities , the one with the Light and the other with the rebellious Darkness.
The spirits in the earth plane mutated into half animal and half plant entities, and were shapeless bundles, vague and unfinished, not able to settle, lying near where water holes and salt lakes could be created. Their mind force were able to adopt  a complete tree form, sometimes human shape, sometimes as part animal and human, and sometimes as part human and plant.
The Sun Mother was forced to come down from her home in the sky to mediate in the laws now controlling the middle plane, the earth, since the upper plane was the domain of the cosmic forces, and the lower plane, the domain of the rebellious forces.
She then agreed to have an agreement between the earth's plane and the forces governing the destiny of the universe, giving them freedom to act in each soul knowing that her powerful minded children will maintain the laws of harmony and peace in the earth's plane, as long as they were able to.
However she was not so pleased with the end result. The rats she had made had changed into bats; giant lizards and large fishes began to appear in a physical form, governed by the mind of the underworld. As a consequence the soul of every man and woman in the earth's plane became a descendant from the bundle of which they were formed, owing allegiance to it, making their journey on the earth's plane harder.
So the spirit of the Sun Mother looked down upon the Earth's plane and thought to herself that she must create new creatures less the Father of All Spirits be angered by what she now saw.
Then the spirit of Sun Mother gave birth to two children, a son and a daughter.  The son god was the spirit of the Morning Star and the goddess was the spirit of the Moon. Then two more children were born to them and these spirits she sent to the Earth's plane.
The spirit of the Sun Mother made them superior to the spirit of the cosmic animals because they had part of her cosmic and universal mind. They became the physical form of the Sun, the Moon, and the stars.

THE NATURE AND INSTINCT OF THE ANDEAN CONDOR.

The Andean condor is the largest flying bird in the world by combined measurement of weight and wingspan. It has a maximum wingspan of 3.3m/10ft10in, and weighing up to 15kg/33lb.
The structure of the wings and the placement of the feathers allows this large bird to soar when it catch thermal air currents that rise up as the sun heats the ground. On the wing the movements of the condor are graceful. The lack of large sternum to anchor correspondingly large flight muscles identifies it physiologically as a primary soarer. The bird flaps its wings on rising from the ground, but after attaining a moderate elevation they seem to sail on the air. The condor's huge wings allows the bird to stay aloft for hours, scanning the fields below. The average flying speed that a bird can reach is up to 88km/55mi per hour, at an altitude of 4,600m/15,000ft or more.
The Andean condor is also one of the world's longest-living birds, with a life-span of over 70 years and mate for life.
The adult plumage is uniformly black, with the exception of a frill of white feathers nearly surrounding the base of the neck which meticulously kept clean by the bird. The male has large white patches on the wings. The head and neck are nearly featherless, which exposes the skin to the sterilizing effects of dehydration and solar ultraviolet light at high altitudes. The skin has a dull red color, which flush and therefore change color in response to their emotional state, which serve to communicate between individuals. In the male, there is a wattle on the neck and a large, dark red fleshy growth or crest on top of the head.
The middle toe is greatly elongated, and the hinder one but slightly developed, while the talon of all the toes are comparatively straight and blunt. The feet are more adapted to walking as in the case of their relatives the storks, and of little use as weapons or organs of prehension as in birds of pray. The female, contrary to the nature and usual rule among birds of prey, is smaller than the male. One or two eggs are usually laid. They nest at elevations of up to 5,000m/16,000ft on inaccessible rock ledges.
Sexual maturity and breeding behavior do not appear in the condor until 5 or 6 years of age. The young are covered with grayish down until they are almost as large as their parents. They are able to fly after 6 months, but continue to roost and hunt with their parents until age 2, when they are displaced by a new clutch.
There is a well-developed social structure within large groups of condors, with competition to determine a 'pecking order' by body language, competitive play behavior, and a wide variety of vocalizations, even though the condor has no voice box. The bird also is known for its extraordinary eyesight, and inquisitive and engaging intelligence.
Wild condors inhabit large territories, often traveling 250km/160mi a day in search of carrion, large carcasses, such as those of a deer or cattle, are their preference. In the wild they are intermittent eaters, often going for a few days without eating, then gorging themselves on several kilograms at once.
In Andean mythology, the Andean condor was associated with the sun deity, and was believed to be the ruler of the upper world.

THE NAZCA CULTURE AND ITS GEO-GLYPHS.

Some billions of years ago the earth's crust and surface figures began to form and shift into a semblance of what we know as the Earth planet today. The shape of the continents and the climate were quite different as well. South America began to form and then, at some point in the southern part of Peru, lush valleys, and gorges, began to appear, and between them all dry elevated plains. These plains were covered in dark red surface stones that would be polished by the desert wind.
About 2,000 years ago the Nazca people inhabited this area. Most people of today learn about them because of the famous geo-glyphys etched in the desert between the Ingenious (Ingenio) and Nazca River Valleys.
Stretching across the Nazca Plains -like a giant map or blue print left by a superior mind of ancient andean people, lie the famous geo-glyphs. They are also known as Nazca lines, figures, pictures, or images, and are shown in direction of the rising of important stars and marking planetary events like sun solstices.
The geo-glyphs are located in the Pampa region, the desolate plain of the Peruvian coast which comprises the Pampas of San Jose (Jumana), Socos, the Ingenious (el Ingenio), and others in the province of Nazca, which is 400km/640mi South of the capital city of Lima. They cover an area of approximately 450 square kilometers of sandy desert as well as the slopes of the contours of the Andes.
The geo-glyphs were first spotted when commercial airlines began flying across the Peruvian desert in the 1920s. Today people sometimes fly in hot air balloons to view the splendors of the geo-glyphs.
The plain is unique for its remarkably ability to preserve the markings upon it, due to the combination of the climate (one of the driest on Earth, with only 20 minutes of rainfall per year), and the flat, stony ground which reduces the effect of the wind at ground level. With no dust or sand to cover the plain, and little rain or wind to erode it, the geo-glyphs drawn here tend to stay drawn. In any other climate, these geo-glyphs would have been obliterated in months, but Nazca is one of the driest and most windless regions on earth.
These climate factors, combined with the existence of a lighter-colored subsoil beneath the desert crust, formed an enormous drawing board for the Nazca people upon which huge lines, trapezoids, and animal figures were etched, and the nature of their mind ideally suited to the ones who wanted to leave a mark for eternity.
The geo-glyphs are the most impressive ones in the world, because of their numbers, characteristics, dimensions, and cultural continuity as they were made and remade by removing the oxidised darker surface stones and top soil to expose the lighter colored underneath floor. In this way the geo-glyphs were drawn as furrows of a lighter color, even though in some cases they became prints. In other cases, the stones defining the lines and drawings form small lateral humps of different sizes.
About 300 figures made of straight lines, and geometric shapes, are etched in the surface of the desert pampa sand. The concentration and juxtaposition of the lines and drawings leave no doubt that they required intensive long-term labor as is demonstrated by the stylistic continuity of the designs, which clearly correspond to different stages of cosmological changes.
There appear to be two kinds of designs:
- One design consists of figures of various beings, trees, plants, flowers, objects (such as tripods, looms and fans) and other strange figures as yet unidentified, such as anthropomorphic ones (that include deformed animals) of colossal proportions made with well-defined lines. Examples of animal designs are a humming-bird, condor, monkey, llama, duck, lizard, spider, and even a killer whale.
- The other design forms lines that could be single (straight and curved) or in groups and could cross each other in complicated networks. The width and length of them could vary, one of the longest straight lines is 20 km long and the total combined length of the geo-glyphs has been estimated at over 1,300 km. Those lines used to describe a specific shape are generally composed of a single continuous line. Designs could be geometric shapes such as triangles, spirals, trapezoids, arrows, and zig-zags.
The geo-glyphs are an enigma, for their exact purpose and meaning remains unknown. It has inspired fantastic explanations like they were done by semi-gods, a landing strip for returning beings, a celestial calendar used for religious rituals related to cosmological dates and seasons, confirming the spirit embodied in the clans (ayllus) who made up the sacred population of Nazca people and to determine through rituals their religious functions held up by reciprocity and redistribution of the energy forces trusted to them, or a map of underground water supplies mapping the orientation of the cosmic energies trusted to them.
How were they created so precisely? Some of the lines continue for kilometers on end only varying by a few degrees. It is possible that these lines were created before the Nazca, but it is somehow difficult to prove it.

DEATH, AN IMPORTANT PART OF INCA LIFE.

Like many ancient Andean people before them, the Incas viewed Death in two ways. One was biological death, when the body ceased functionally and was mummified. The other was the passing of the soul to a place active only in the mind, souls and daily lives of the living until they were replaced by other prominent figures. However, some of them were never forgotten. They were considered heroic figures who gave the Inca their identity.
As long as they maintained alive in their minds the world beyond the living world, deities, supernatural, powers and curses were an active force very much entwined with human nature, such beliefs and practices have somehow continued alive to the present day.
Death was considered an important part of life in the realm of the living and mummification was a rite of passage into the abstract, or the non-physical one, the world of the spirits.
The mummification processes were precise and complicated. One of the things that made this process complicated was that every civilian had to be mummified. All of the people of various places on the social ladder were buried. Tombs and mummies were well preserved, revered and considered extremely sacred. Ancestor veneration frightened the European crown and clergy, because their minds were already corrupted by the belief that human power dominated the world beyond the living and no entity or force was able to punish them in their wrongdoings. They destroyed the burial chambers of these important corpses and robbed them in an attempt to undermine the spiritual power of the Inca religion founded in ancestral veneration and worship. They portrayed themselves as being sent by their ancestors in order to establish a proper order in the world of the living. At the beginning it worked out but at the end they themselves brought the Inca curses to their own lives and to the crowns responsible of the destruction behind the curtains.
The intention of the curse, according to Inca beliefs, was to submit the soul of the inflicter to the proper supernatural power in charge of the ancestral tree of souls from which the individual belonged to. This supernatural forces then inflicted misfortunes of any kind to the person and the descendants according to the weight of the wrongness done by the individual or community of people.
Curse was a powerful phenomenon, viewed as the summoned wrath of the beings in the upper world towards the wrongness of humans against the law of nature, or the presence of evil forces using nature as a weapon to defied the power of the upper world.
The reason why some of mummies survived from the hand of the Europeans and for so long is because most of the mummies were buried in the high peaks of the Andean mountains, symbolizing the power of nature against the power of man winning nature over him. The high mountains being a very cold place by nature, the mummies were kept frozen and this frozen estate kept them from deteriorating.
To help them in the afterlife, the mummies were bundled with offerings of food, tools, and precious items inside of their wrappings. Their internal organs were kept inside of their bodies and then buried or put in an above ground tombs called 'chullpas.'
If the person were a king he would be seated on a special throne, with the arms across their chest and their knees up to their chests. They would be dressed in fancy clothes and adorned with pieces of silver and gold and parts of animals would be put on the outer layer of him and onto it offerings to the gods. Fake heads also and masks would be put on the face.
The mummies of the Inca rulers were among the holiest objects of Inca religion. They were actually treated as if they were still alive. They had servants, maintained ownership of their property, were consulted as oracles, and were taken to major festivals or to visit other mummies.
If the deceased was not from the ruling class their mummies were placed in a tomb above the ones in the ground. They were accessible and people could leave gifts, food, or belongings.
If they were a religious sacrifice they were put in a long fancy robes that were so big so it allowed room to grow in, during the afterlife. Then they were wrapped up and some of their belongings were placed inside the wrappings. They were then put into the ground in many high peaks of the Andes. They were considered like demigods with a specific mission in the afterlife.

ANDEAN SHAMANISM.

In Andean Shamanism, the Human Energy Field has long being understood since the human body is the replica of the energy fields that act in the universe.
The 'aura' or 'human energy field' is understood as a field of energy which surrounds and penetrates our body. The aura underlies and supports the functioning of the body. Contained within the aura are the energetic aspects of every structure and function of the body, as well as everything that we experience (physical sensations, thoughts, feelings, states of consciousness, etc.)
Activities in all cells, tissues and organs generate specific magnetic pulse-action that can be detected on the skin surface. The laws of physics prove this concept since they demand that any electrical current generates a corresponding magnetic field in the surrounding space.
Andean people believes it is through the energy field that we are connected with everyone and everything else that exists.
From the time of their ancestors, the ability to see things that lies beyond the reach of the physical sight, was taught through special trained religious people (Shaman). They developed a keen sensitiveness  to the subtle energy that surrounds everything in the world.
The role of ancestral spirits are the most important knowledge known by the shamans and the role they have upon the domain of the elements: water, earth, fire, air. They were identified by frequencies of sound and matter. Also by vibrations in the earth energy field. It was a world of living energies.
The shaman's perception of the healing powers of nature opens the door or the portal for the dramatic realignment of matter to a degree that is capable of its healing and restore the harmonize work between the energies. The shaman is capable to activate the individual's inner healer power that resides within the body by removing obstacles that impair the healing process.
The world around the shamanism is totally different than the Western idea of it. They describe the world as made up of two separate and yet coexisting energies: the natural ones and the spiritual ones.
In the spiritual world, people have bodies, live in houses, enjoy community life, and are surrounded by landscapes similar to the physical world. Everything there is more vivid and much more alive. What we see respond to what we are thinking. Time boundaries do not exist. We always have all the time we need. Particular individuals are only as near or as far away as our thoughts go, and thinking of a person or place can actually bring us there. It is a place where our inner state are reflected in our surroundings and where all life originates from, and is sustained by Love and Wisdom of our Creator.
Incas believed in sharing and integrating knowledge, specially the ones in regard to spiritual knowledge. They connected all the people in one single language, the language of their religion, but they did not stop their people from new incorporated lands to continue paying respect to their deities.
The Andean way teaches us about the power of collective religious thinking bringing respect to the grounding chord, the invisible line of energy from our bodies in the earth to the cosmical one belonging to Vira-Cocha, the Creator of everything.

APU CON-TICCI VIRA-COCHA.

Apu Con-Ticci Vira-Cocha was the supreme god of the pre-Incas and Incas and seen as the Creator of all things, or the substance from which all things are created and intimately associated with the cosmological sea.
Vira-Cocha was the Father of all other Inca gods. He created the universe, earth, sun, moon, stars, and all living beings.
According to Inca's legend, Vira-Cocha rose from Lake Titicaca during the Time of Darkness to bring forth Light. He made mankind, during the time of Darkness,  by breathing his powerful breath into stones, but his first creation were brainless giants that displeased him. So Vira-Cocha punished them by sending great Flood. All these giants returned to their original stone form, except two, and several could still be seen in much later times standing imposingly at sites such as Tiahuanaco and Pucara.
Then Vira-Cocha made a new, better ones from smaller stones. He also gave them such gifts as clothes, language, agriculture and the arts and then created all the animals.Then Vira-Cocha decided to make the sun, moon and stars and so bring light to the world. This heavenly bodies were created from islands in Lake Titicaca. Finished, and highly satisfied with his labours, Vira-Cocha then set off to spread his knowledge around the world and for this he dressed as a beggar and assumed different names. The god was not always well received despite the knowledge he imparted, sometimes even stones were thrown at him. Vira-Cocha wept and eventually disappeared across the Pacific Ocean, by walking on the water, and never to be seen again but promising one day to return.
In another legend Vira-Cocha had one son, Inti, and two daughters, Mama Quilla and Pacha Mama. In this legend, he destroyed the people with a Great Flood called Unu Pacahcutec, saving two to bring civilization to the rest of the world. These two beings were Manco Capac (Splendid Foundation), the son of Inti, and Mama Ocllo, which means "Fertility." These two founded the Inca civilization carrying a golden staff, called Tapac-Yauri. He fathered the first eight civilized human beings.
In another legend, Vira-Cocha had two sons, Imah Mana Vira-Cocha and Tocapo Vira-Cocha. After the Great Flood, Vira-Cocha sent his sons to visit the tribes to the North East and North West to determine if they still obeyed his commandments. Vira-Cocha himself traveled North. During their journey, Imay Mana and Tocapo gave names to all trees, flowers, fruits, and herbs. They also taught the tribes which of these were edible, which had medicinal properties, and which were poisonous.
Eventually, Vira-Cocha and his sons arrived at Cuzco and the Pacific seacoast where they walked across the water until they disappeared.
The word Vira-Cocha literally means "Sea Foam."

THE INCA'S SKILL IN TAMING STONES.

Incan architecture is the most significant ancient structures in South America. They inherited the technique from the Tiahuanco culture, present in the high lands of the Andes around 14,000 BC. and improved it.
The capital of the Inca empire, Cuzco, contains many fine examples of Inca masonry, and the famous royal state of Machu Picchu is a surviving example of Inca's skills in taming stones. It was finely worked to produce a precise arrangement of interlocking blocks in their finest buildings.
Europeans architecture incorporated in their buildings ancient Inca foundation structures and walls.
The finish surface of Inca stone masonry at microscopic level indicates how it was worked, ruling out standard procedure when it comes to Incas's skill to work on stones.
Granite and the other hard, igneous rocks are difficult to tame.  Granite contains 15% to 30% quartz crystals, and a few other minerals of varying degrees of hardness which is important to know when viewing the marks left in a worked stone under the microscope.
They had 3 types of stones: Yucay limestone, Green Sacsay-Huaman diorite porphyry, and Black Andesite. Some of them appear to have slick surfaces as it occurred in Machu-Picchu, and Ollantay-Tambo, and at the sliding spot (rodadero) at Sacsay-Huaman, still used as a slide by children.
The conventional methods used in the ancient Old World, such as pounding, hammering, grinding, polishing with abrasives, and wedging, just don't match up the way in which the Incas tamed the stone.
In the case of hammering, rock is wanting to break along pre-existing planes of weakness. In the case of sanding the rock, which is mostly quartz, the softer minerals are sanded out, while the quartz crystals are little affected, being left standing above the rest of the minerals on the surface. In the case of wedging the rock, the absence of long-angle fractures avoided inability to control the cracking. In the case of a surface worked with pounding stones, in which all minerals ended up unevenly fractures, is incompatible with what is observed with Inca masonry under the microscope.
It is known that the Incas used layers of gold sheets over stones to catch the powerful Sun's rays at a very high altitude and with the help of parabolic reflectors made of transparent rocks and gold, they were able to concentrate the heat and amplified the effect of it and use such power to make the rock diminish it density for a small period of time but good enough to work on it. They also mixed gold and silver to make the mirror devices increased the reflective power. This thermally disaggregate  process helped them to treat rocks in the best way possible to maintain their endurance and strength.
Then the rocks were pounded into shape rather than cut. Blocks then were moved by sliding using ropes, and ramps or by lifting using logs, poles, levers, etc. Tell-tale marks can still be seen on some blocks. and others still have nodes protruding from them or indentations used to help workers grip the stone. Mortar was not necessary because of the fine setting of them. Finally, a finished surface was often provided using grinding stones and sand.
Rocks were roughly hewn in the queries and then worked again at their final destination as it is indicated by unfinished examples left at the quarries on various routes to building sites.
The meticulous process of laying, removing, re-shaping and then re-laying blocks to make them fit exactly together was a very exhausting taming process. Interlocking blocks and sloping walls make Inca buildings extremely resistant. 500 years of earthquakes have done remarkably little damage to Inca structures.
The most common shape in Machu Picchu, the sacred city of the Incas, buildings are rectangular without any internal walls, once layered with the mixture of gold and silver that the reflection of the Sun over it maintained a thermally controlled environment inside the buildings. The roofing material of the habitations were made mostly of Totora reeds.
Inca architecture includes some of the most finely worked stone structures from any ancient civilization. The vast majority of the buildings were rectangular and most of these had a single entrance and were composed of only one room. The norm was straight-walled structures, and dividing walls were not common in Inca design. Most buildings had only one level, but there are some structures with two levels, especially those built into hillsides, and the more impressive imperial structures at the capital Cuzco had three levels.
For religious purpose, it is found some rare examples of multiple-door long rectangular structures and even buildings which were circular or U-shaped.
 The buildings were always practical and pleasing to the eye. Inca exterior walls commonly slope inwards as they rise, typically 5 degrees, giving the building a distinctive trapezoid form. The trapezoid form is more common in the North and Centre of the empire and one of its optical effects is to make walls seem higher and thicker than they actually are. The trapezoid form was repeated in doorways and windows and interior wall niches. Doorways have double jams topped with a large single stone lintel and windows just have doble jambs.
The buildings are also remarkable uniform in design with grand imperial structures taking on a similar look to more humble buildings, with the only significant differences being their much larger scale and quality of finish.
Fond on the principle of duality in many areas, a feature of Inca architecture is that it typically incorporated the natural landscape and at the same time the taming of it to create an often spectacular blend of geometrical and natural forms.

THE CULTURE OF TIAHUANACO.

Tiahuanaco is located on the Southern shore of Lake Titicaca at a height of 13,000 feet. This culture thrived at the breathless, oxygen deprived height and managed to move stones weighing up to 200 tons and invented modular building techniques that would even today, be cutting edge.
The fact that the culture of Tiahuanaco appeared fully developed in this high altitude, arid and inhospitable land is a real puzzle. Almost immediately they seem to have used advanced building techniques like modules construction. Huge blocks were carved from single stones and designed to fit together on the site with exact precision and artistic style. The massive blocks are extremely stable resisting both time and earthquakes. They were made, transported and positioned apparently by hand.
Tiahuanaco was the capital of an empire that extended into the present-day Peru and Bolivia, and is believed to be one of the most important cities of ancient South America.
Tiahuanaco is now about 800 feet above the level of Lake Titicaca, but most archaeologists agree that it was once a port. In the past, the Lake was much higher and its shores lapped Tiahuanaco. Structures found in Lake Titicaca show that the sea levels changed dramatically throughout history.
It is unknown how old these ruins are but some researchers suggest that they date to 14,000 years BC.
There is evidence that architectural structures exist at the bottom of the Lake Titicaca, suggesting that the civilization existed before the Lake was formed. Many scientists believe that the Lake formed during some great flood dating back thousands of years.
The region was believed to have been populated by about 100,000 people. This estimation is based on the amount of pottery and other artifacts that remain in the land area. Multiple grid and maze like structures throughout Tiahuanaco, visible only because of the discoloration of the underlying soil, were discovered to be an ancient network of gardens and canals, capable of growing potatoes and other crops. The plan was ingenious. Canals were placed in grids that surrounded the narrow garden. The depth of this canals was kept to from 24 to 30 inches so that the strong daytime sunlight could easily warm the water. In the evening, when the frigid air caused frost, the canals vented their stored heat in the form of a fog. This kept the temperature around the plants elevated above freezing and also helped irrigate them. The canals were constructed in a well planned and artistic pattern. This further indicate the intellect and aesthetic appreciation of this people.
One of the most famous icon of the archaeological site at Tiahuanaco and still standing is the Portal of the Sun. It is approximately 3 meters tall and carved on a single block of stone. When first discovered in the mid-19th century, the Portal was lying horizontally and had a large crack going through it. It currently stands in the same location where it was found, although it is believed that this is not its original location. Where the exact location was remain uncertain. The figures that decorate the Portal have astronomical connotations and resemble human-like beings with wings and curled-up tails, and appear to be wearing rectangular helmets.
Discoveries of the apparent advanced knowledge that their engineers seemed to possess reflects thousands of years ahead of other cultures. They knew that the earth was a globe which rotated on its axis and they calculated exactly the time of eclipses, even those not visible at Tiahuanaco but visible in the opposite hemisphere. They also divided the circle mathematically into 264 degrees; and determined the correct ratio pi (22/7), and they were able to calculate squares roots.
The Sun-God in the centre of the Portal is sculpted with rays emitting from his face in all directions. He also appears to be holding a staff in each hand. The Sun-God figure is also called the 'Weeping God' because things similar to tears are carved on its face.
Some people believe that this Portal was used as a calendar because it appears to reflect a solar year of their time. Others have attempted to explain this as being a ritualistic calendar from some other planet or galaxy. The calendar has 290 days, divided into 12 months of 24 days each, plus 2 intercalary days added to make the cycle complete.  Other theories suggest that it was an inter-dimensional Portal between the three realms that they believed existed parallel to the realm of the living.
The religion of Tiahuanaco centered around the cult of the universe and the creator god Vira-Cocha.
Andean legends claim that the area around Lake Titicaca was the cradle of the first humans on Earth. According to their creation myth, Lord Vira-Cocha, the creator of all things, chose Tiahuanaco as the place of creation.
Creation Myth: In the beginning, Lord Con-Tiki-Vira-Cocha (Foam of the Sea), prince and creator of all things, emerged from the void and created the earth and the heavens.
Then he created animals and a race of giants who lived in eternal darkness as he had neglected to create a source of light. These beings enraged the Lord, and he turned them into stone. Then he flooded the earth till all was under water, and all life extinguished.
In a new start, he created the sun, moon, and stars. Now he created new birds and animals.
Again he decided to form human beings, these he fashioned from stone. Some he painted with long hair, some with short hair, some women he painted as pregnant, some as caring for babies fashined beside them; and on each figure he painted the clothes they would continue to wear.
Finally he divided the stone figures into groups, giving each group its own language, its own food to grow, and its own songs to sing.
Then he buried all the figures in the earth to await his command that would bring them to life.
Vira-Cocha then summoned his helpers and told them to go forth on the earth in different directions to prepare places for the new humans to occupy.
Vira-Cocha then traveled the land, calling each group into life as he passed the land they were to populate, whereupon he taught them how to live on the land selected for them.
Vira-Cocha and his companion finished with their teaching process and walking on the waves of the ocean they disappear toward the setting sun.

THE HUACA' S SPIRIT.

A huaca was anything at all unusual in nature, it cloud be a person, place, or thing and immediately considered sacred to Andean peoples.
The idea behind the notion of 'huaca' was the belief that there were supernatural spirits that animated everything in nature, ranging from Mountain peaks, to Rivers, to lakes, to Mummies, to oddly shaped Rocks, or even strangely shaped potatoes or ears of corn. Also such things as natural Bridges, Caves, buildings, quarries, battlefields, and archaeological sites such as the ruined city of Tiahuanaco in Bolivia were considered 'huacas.'
The spirits that animated the 'huacas' had certain specific powers and responsibilities, effective mostly in their specific locations. Thus a field guardian huaca protected a specific field, a spring considered a huaca was responsible for its own flow, and an ancestral huaca was responsible for its lineage.
Huacas varied in their power and were hierarchically ranked. The larger the huaca was, the more power it had. Thus Mountain Peaks, especially high snow-covered peaks, were the most powerful ones.
The Incas firmly believed in the power of the 'huacas' and worshipped them alongside the formal deities. Cuzco itself was an important huaca, and royal Inca states and architecture often incorporated stone huacas. Many states feature special platforms for mountain worship with spectacular views of the mountain peaks.
Associated with royal sites were carved stone huacas called Inti-Huatana, ot the 'hitching post of the sun.' The most famous Inti-Huatanas are at the royal estates of Machu-Picchu and Pisac.
Other huacas of special importance to the Incas were places connected with events related to their lineage history. The hill of Huana-Caure where Ayar Ucho was believed to have turned into a stone was a major huaca. So were the places associated with emperors such as Pacha-Cutec or Tupac Inca Yupanqui.
The numerous stones, called Puru-Auca, that Pacha-Cutec claimed had turned to warriors to help him defeat the Chanca army during the siege of Cuzco were all worshiped as huacas.
Individuals traveling over mountain passes commonly carried a small stone to be deposited as an offering at the top with a prayer for strength and protection. This huacas were called Apu-Chita and were marked by piles of small stones contributed over the years.
Avery important type of huaca was a guardian spirit called 'Hua-Oque,' meaning 'Brother." It consisted of a statue made to represent an Inca ruler or a high- ranking lord. The size, form, and material used to make the statue varied according to the whim of the person being represented. they could be made of many different materials, including stone, wood, or precious metals. The image was formally adopted as a 'Hua-Oque' in a special ceremony. Family members were required to treat the statue in the same way that they treated the living person it represented or his mummy. Like mummies, these statues were dressed and fed and participated in daily activities. They were even taken into battle during wartime, since they were believed to lend a degree of strength and success to the army.
Some, but not all, huacas had oracular powers. Some of the most famous, such as Pacha-Camac and Apu-Rimac were known for its oracular powers. All decisions were made only after consulting the supernatural energies in contact with the oracular huacas.  Questions put to oracles usually had to do with seeing the consequences as a result of certain actions. The questions were laid to the huaca, and the priest who spoke for it provided the answer after entering in a trance that was exactly done when a portal was open.
In Cuzco and its vicinity were over 350 huacas. These were very carefully organized into groupings, and certain Inca kin groups were responsible for their upkeep and making the proper sacrificces on the proper days.
The basic concept in the organization of these huacas was that they all were located along 41 distinct straight lines called 'ceques' that radiated outward from the Cori-Cancha Sun Temple to distances up to 12 kilometers from Cuzco. Each line connected between 4 and 15 huacas that were unevenly distributed along the lines. The lines were grouped by the quarter or Suyo of the empire within which they fell. Chinchay-Suyo, Anti-Suyo, and Colla-Suyo, each contained 9 lines, while Conti-Suyo contained 14 lines. In the 3 quarters with 9 lines, the lines were further divided into groups of 3.
The whole system is very reminiscent of the method used by the inca for recording information on knotted cords, or 'quipu.'
It is possible that a similar system was common in all Inca towns and administrative centers but not enough information have survived to indicate it with certainty.

THE ADVANCE MEDICINE OF THE INCAS.

Inca medicine is a complicated mix of many practices and beliefs. Their religion and healthcare were very closely intertwined, as Inca priests were also doctors, and the cures they used were often more supernatural than conventional medicine. Sickness were understood as the work of supernatural forces. They use the earth and cosmic magnetism to interact each other through the frequencies emitted by magical charms, chants, and spells, and try to restore the harmony in the communication. Still, to cure the physical body, they used the appropriate amount of herbs and minerals used as remedies, anesthetics, and antibiotics, with prayers and supernatural spells to restore the harmony in it, since it was considered the vessel of the cosmic force used by the soul of the individual.
If an Inca broke a law, sinned against any deity, or lied, it was enough reason to become sick due to the break of the harmony of the dual forces co-existing in the universe.
They had an extent supply of knowledge about how to treat many sicknesses. The Inca knew the medicinal properties of vary great variety of medicinal plants. The chewed coca leave were used as a painkiller, and also to lessen hunger as the Chasqui messengers did. They never became addicted to any of the herbs used to lessen the pain since they, together with the herb, used wild tobacco, chicha made from fermented maize (alcoholic beverage), and hynosis to make the brain rest during a surgery process, avoiding the person to loose contact with reality while still the mind was under the effect of the narcotics.
They knew how to restore the physical body from, among others, urinary track blockage, respiratory disorders, and how to treat sickness in the immune system by increasing the amount of white blood cells. Also they were able to alleviate dysentery, ulcers, eye problems, and toothache. They also did blood transfusions. The success rate was quite high since the entire population were from the same blood group, type O.
To treat wounds they used boiled bark from a pepper tree placing it while still warm on the wound, and to prevent infection they burned the wound a little bit. To close an open wound they used the jaws from large ants as a clasp to seal it.
Surgeons were highly skilled, as they knew detailed information about cranial anatomy, and not to cut parts of the skull where the brain was injured, bleeding or where infections were more likely to appear.  They also managed successfully to take away small pieces of the patient's hand to treat a head injury, and removed crushed or deceased limbs.
The brain surgery was called 'trepanation' and has been carried out since 1000AC. Over the years, remains have shown that the survival rate was around 90% with very low infection levels. They had different methods of operating the skull. Many people underwent this surgery, some even undergoing it more than once. The patients were mostly adult men that suffer brain injury, but also the trepanation was performed to cure epilepsy or chronic bone infection.
There were many different people involved in the Inca system of healthcare. One of them was the 'Hua-Tucc.' Their job was to find out the origin of the negative energy that causes the sickness, then to diagnose the patient, and to examine thoroughly the person's life. Then there was also the 'Ham-Pec,' who had applied their knowledge about all kind of diseases over the physical body and then cure the patient using the appropriate herbs and minerals. The 'Paco' was in charge of the treatment of the soul and to make sure the spirit was healthy. The soul was believed to be in the heart (character / personality) of the person. These different types of doctors were very religious, mystical, and very knowledgeable in the behavior of the natural forces and use of the natural energies of herbs and minerals.
Every village had their own 'San-Coyoc' or surgeon priest who would take care of broken limbs (disruption inside the community or refusal to comply to Inca law), open abscessed wounds (evil talking), and pull out teeth (taking out the root of any negative energy). They were also the 'Hampi Ca-Mayoc,'  keepers of the authorized remedies and a state chemist. A 'Colla-Huaya' supplied medicinal plants, amulets, and charms, containing the required vibration or frequencies to restore the unbalanced energies.
Becoming a doctor was not an easy journey. First of all the power was passed from father to son. Then he was sent off to the Inca School of Medicine at Cuzco where he learned about the properties and behavior of the cosmical energies, how them interrelated with the energies of the earth, how to identified herbs and minerals according to their energies, how to recognize the behavior of the negative energies causing sickness and how to treat them. It would take so many years of practice before he was considered a doctor. These doctors were always looking for new energies, new remedies and improved old cures, which resulted in great medical advances and development.

THE COSMOS AND THE INCA MIND.

The Cosmos was seen as a powerful Spirit that connected and influenced everything in it. It was divided into three realms or 'pachas' : Hanan Pacha (heaven), Kay Pacha (earth), and Uku Pacha (underworld). The three realms represented the three distinct planes of existence, interconnected and bridged by both physical and spiritual elements. Together, the three realms shaped the foundation of their religion, the concept of the divine Inca's blood and the cosmos, the spiritual force that governed it, and the day-to-day world view of both the divine Inca leader class and priests and the common man.
The main concept about the Cosmos' spirit was the duality of its force. The human body served as a symbol and mediator of this dualism of forces in the cosmic structure and processes. The structure of the human body with cosmological relevance included the duality of right and left and the integrated unity of the body as a whole. The processes included reproduction, illness, and sensory perception.
Inca festivals and rituals expressed and enacted this corporeal and cosmic order.
One aspect of the Inca empire's identity was its idea of being a collective component of forces unified with the purpose of maintain harmony with the cosmological forces acting in it, whereby the adherents of the Inca religion also conceived themselves as a particular force bounded together by a chain of forces of divine origin descended to the earth in the person of the Sapa Inca.
With the arrival of the Europeans, the Incas were confronted with a radically different image of the body and the cosmos. The clash between the two bodies was experienced by the Incas as a confrontation of the two opposite forces and the consequent chaos in the cosmological order projected in the earth.  These humans representing the state of chaos made its arrival to the New World in a state of fear, because they couldn't comprehend how so many people in such challenging environment were connected in a solemn union with a supernatural power that intimidated them.
They were reluctant to teach their fundamental beliefs that put them on the verge of extinction to the Inca population, instead they plot a different way of approaching to it. They used the Inca's religion foundations about the existence of the world in order to gain power over them and use that power in their own benefit, to make them rich. Europeans learned new ways to advance in their own religious notions. They built the Catholic faith as a panacea to cover up their lust for the Inca treasures and using Inca's beliefs as foundation stones, within the Catholicism, they gained acceptance among the people who still preserved their connection to the other cosmic force.
Many aspects of the Inca's belief are still preserved intact in the bodies of the ones who continue its ways and will remain as part of it as long as the earth exist.
Europeans did exactly what the Cathedral in Cuzco shows to us in our days. It still houses the Spirit of its fundamental builder that set the foundation stone in which the actual building rest, and continue its existence by simultaneously giving support to the european nature baroque structures set over it, as long as the foundation exists.
Ancient ruins help us learn about the religion beliefs of the pre-Incas and Inca civilization. It comes alive through it. We do not need writing scripts to understand the foundations of their beliefs. It is plain and simple. We need just to understand the forces that act inside of our bodies and how they are connected to the creative force that unified everything.
In Machu Picchu, the famous Inca complex of plazas, temples, and homes, are set in a majestic setting give us understanding about the mind projection of the builders. The Incas developed the idea of them mapping the cosmos over their ground. More of this mind projection awaits at Ollantay-Tambo fortress, and the Sacsay-Huaman Temple, both with some of the best examples of Inca masonry.

THE UNIFIED SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE OF THE ANDES.

The Inca Empire (Quechua:Tahuantinsuyo) was the largest empire in the New World. The empire arose from the Highlands of Peru. Adaptation to the altitude led to distinctive physical, mental and spiritual developments. Compared to other humans, the Incas had bigger hearts with slower heart rates, almost one-third larger lung capacity, about 2 liters (4 pints) more blood volume and double the amount of hemoglobin, which transfer oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body. They had the advantage of coping with the extraordinary altitude compared to those environments at a sea level.
Permanent habitations were as high as 5,300 m / 17,400 ft above sea level in the temperate zones of the high plateaus.
Their methods of unification were based on peaceful assimilation that let them to incorporate a large portion of Western South America, and its central power was centered on the Andean mountain ranges.
At its largest and powerful unification, the Tahuantinsuyo joined Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, North West Argentina, Southern Colombia, and North and Central Chile.
Roads allowed quick movement on foot for the Inca and his people and shelters called Tambos (Inn) were built one day's distance in traveling from each other, so that anyone on campaign could be fed and rested and always have supplies ready as they traveled.
The Chasqui were the messengers of the empire. They were agile an highly trained in mind and spirit and physically fit. They were in charge of carrying the quipu (record made of knotted strings for different things based on the kind, color, # of strings, etc)) and able to pass along oral information that completed the information carried in quipus, to each other and to higher authorities throughout the Inca empire. A quipu could not be read unless the chasqui was there with the rest of the oral part of the message. They also helped the inspector general in keeping track of the people in the empire. they chewed coca leaves for extra energy and cleansing purposes concerning radiation or high altitude diseases.
The Incas revered the coca plant because of its sacred spirit that was able to interact with the elements of the body (fire, air, earth and water) and keep them in balance. Its leaves were used in the exact amount that the body needed to overcome the altitude harmful effects. Inappropriate amounts were lethal altering the organic processes of the physical body, weakening the mental activity and blocking the spiritual connection with the mother earth and the cosmos.
Many discoveries in medicine were made thanks to the properties of plants and herbs as natural anesthetic relievers. They performed successful skull surgeries, by cutting holes in the skull to alleviate fluid buildup and inflammation caused by head wounds. Survival rates were 80 to 90 per cent.
Population estimated for the Tahuantinsuyo ranged from as few as 9 million to more than 37 million. They were typically married at the age of 20 concerning men and at the age of 16 concerning women. Trial marriages were typical. Man an woman agreed to try out for a few years. At the end of this time both were allowed to return to their home. However, once the marriage was made final, they could only separate if the woman was childless. The marriage proceeded as an economic agreement between the two families.
The social system had an ancient origin based on the ayllu, an extended family group with a common ancestor. The economic system was also based on ancient social structures and explained through several principles, reciprocity, redistribution and vertical control.
Redistribution was understood as force or entity governing the Earth's energy and in direct connection with its counter part in the cosmos. The way that the state redirect it over the land ensured that all agricultural goods not exchanged by reciprocity were to be redistributed in different areas of the empire as a back up in case of bad crops. In essence, the government of the Inca functioned as a safeguard against mass starvation.
The most concerning form of religion was based in the worship of the Sun, the patron of the inca state. They dedicated many ceremonies to their ancient divinity and was viewed as a cluster of solar aspects, since the Inca divided his identity according to the stages of the sun. Corresponding to the 3 diurnal stages, the Sun's identity was also divided into 3 primary sub-complexes, which were the Father (Apu Inti), Son (Churi Inti), and Brother (Inti Huaqui). In astronomy, the Father (Apu Inti), and the Son (Churi Inti), were actually separated from one another along an astronomical axis, because they were associated with summer and winter solstices respectively. However, the Brother (Inti Huaqui) was not associated with an astronomical location because his specific position was in the realm of the living as the founding power of the Inca reign and the center of the state's official ancestor cult.
The Incas set aside large quantities of natural resources throughout the empire for Inti (Sun). Each assimilated province was suppose to dedicate a 3rd of their lands and herds to Inti (Sun) as mandated by the Inca. Each major province had a Sun Temple in which male and female priests would serve. The female priests (Mama-Cuna) were chosen from the group separated by birth (Aclla-Cuna) and trained in their sacred arts, and they weaved special cloth and brew a sacred fermented beverage (chicha) made from corn, purple corn, grapes, cassava, or various other fruits, for festivities and rituals to Inti (Sun).
In the Coricancha, the chief Temple of the Inca state religion in Cuzco, the heart of the world, were wall niches in which the bodies of previous emperors and rulers were placed along with various statues of Inti (Sun) that were presented as if they were alive in certain festivals. They were settled in very specific and exact cosmological time in order to communicate the 3 different realms from which the harmony of their whole world depended. The image of Inti was depicted in human form with a hollowed out midsection that was filled with a concoction made of gold and the hearts' ashes of the ancestral Sapa Incas. The image also was adorned with ear spools, a pectoral, and a royal headband and the image projected from its form felines and serpents.
The festival of Inti Raymi (Sun Festival) was attended by the four sectors of the Tahuantinsuyo. It was held during the Southern Hemisphere's winter solstice, which is the shortest day of the year. This fell around June 24 in the Inca empire.
Priests, Officials and Vassals who attended were dressed in their best costumes and carried their best tools. Preparation for the festival began with a fast of 3 days where there was no fire lit and the people refrained from having sexual intercourse. This festival lasted 9 days, and during this time people consumed massive amounts of food and drink. They were many sacrifices as well, which were performed on the 1st day. After the nine days everyone was allowed to leave with the permission of the Inca.
The diet of the People of the Andes consisted primarily of fish and vegetables, supplemented less frequently with the meat of cuyes (guinea pigs) and camelids.
The Inca cultivated food crops on dry soil over the Pacific coastlines, also high on the slopes of the Andes, and in the lowland Amazon rain forest. In mountainous environments, they made extensive use of terraced fields which not only allowed them to use the mineral-rich mountain soil which other people left fallow, but also took advantage of micro-climates conducive to a variety of crops being cultivated throughout the year. Agricultural tools consisted mostly of simple digging sticks.
They also domesticated and raised llamas and alpacas for their wool and to use them as pack animals. The road system was a key to farming success as it allowed distribution of food over long distances.
It is estimated that the Inca cultivated around 70 crop species. The main crops were potatoes, sweet potatoes, maize, chili peppers, tomatoes, peanuts, oca, quinoa, amaranth, and cotton.
Many of these crops were widely distributed by the Europeans and are now crops worldwide. The tomato sauce, for example, was originated by the Inca people using tomato, red peppers and other spices.

THE SUPERNATURAL POWER OF THE KINGDOM OF CUZCO.

The Kingdom of Cuzco is traced to the Valley of Cuzco, the central region of Peru on the Andes Mountains, the longest continental mountain range in the world, along the Western coast of South America, being about 7,000km/4,300mi long, and 200 to 700km/120 to 430mi wide, and from 4,000 to 7,000m/13,000 to 22,000 ft in height. The Andes are also part of the American Cordillera, a chain of mountain ranges that consists of an almost continuous sequence of mountain ranges that form the Western Backbone of North America, Central America, South America, and Antarctica.
The Kingdom of Cuzco was founded by the first Inca, Manco Capac, and began as a city-state formed by pastoral people. It became the worthy metropolis of a great and flourishing monarchy and stood on a beautiful Valley on an elevated region of the Plateau, enjoying a genial and salubrious temperature. Towards the North it was defended by a spur of the great Cordillera; and the city was traversed by a River over which bridges of timber, covered with heavy slabs of stone, furnished a mean of communication with the opposite banks. The streets were long and narrow; the houses low, and some made of clay and reeds. The health of the city was promoted by spacious openings and squares, in which numerous population from the distant country assembled to worship the Sun (Inti) and celebrate the cosmic seasons belonging to him through earthly festivals. Cuzco was the 'Holy City,' and the great Temple of the Sun. The Inca referred to their empire as Tahuantin-Suyo which meant 'The Four united Power.'
According to the oral tradition, it was a time when the ancient races were all plunged in deplorable barbarism; they worshipped nearly every object in nature indiscriminately; made war their pastime, and feasted on the flesh of their slaughtered captives. The spirit of the Sun, the great luminary and parent of mankind, taking compassion on the degrading condition of mankind, sent two of his children, Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo, to gather the people into communities, and teach them the arts of civilized life. The celestial pair, brother and sister, husband and wife, advanced along the plains in the neighborhood of Lake Titicaca. They bore with them a golden wedge, and were directed to take up their residence on the spot where the sacred emblem should without effort sink into the ground. They proceeded accordingly and as far as the Valley of Cuzco the sacred emblem sank into the earth and disappeared for ever. Here the children of the Sun established their residence, and soon entered upon their beneficent mission. Manco Capac teaching men the arts of agriculture and Mama Ocllo the mysteries of weaving and spinning. The simple people lent a willing ear to the messengers of heaven, and, gathering together in considerable numbers, laid the foundations of the city of Cuzco.
Under the leadership of Manco Capac, the Kingdom of Cuzco began its power, together with the same wise and benevolent maxims, which regulated the conduct of the first Incas, descended to their successors, and under their scepter a community gradually extended itself along the broad surface of the table-land, a land formation in the Andes, asserting its spiritual superiority over the surrounding tribes.  In time, either by peaceful assimilation or warfare, it grew and formed the largest Inca Empire in South America before the arrival of the Europeans that came to the Americas in search for new lands since theirs were already corrupted and in decadence. Then the Inca Empire held a mystical fascination for the people who went back to their homelands. The fabulous wealth in gold and silver and other metals possessed by the Inca Empire was the booty for people coming from European lands. Then, using the Christian faith as panacea, systematically pillaged and plundered the wealth of the Empire, and the booty they carried to their lands altered forever the whole European economic system. The wealth of the Incas became the healthy blood they needed in order to survive against all the plagues that they were suffering because of their barbarian way of exercising the power between the crowns who owned Europe at that time of history.
The far-reaching expansion of the Incas began under the command of Sapa Inca (paramount leader) Pacha-Cutec (Earth Shaker), the 9th Inca. He and his son Tupac Yupanqui incorporated a large portion of the Andes Mountains under Inca control, and its power was best centered on the Andes.
The face of the conquered land was a challenge in every aspect of the everyday life. The sandy strip along the coast where rain rarely fell, fed only by a few streams of water, furnishing a remarkable contrast to the vast volumes of water rolling down the Eastern sides of the Andes into the Atlantic Ocean. The precipitous steeps of the Mountains, with its splintered sides of porphyry and granite, and its higher regions wrapped in snows that never melted under the fierce sun rays, unless it happened from its own volcanic fires. All the communications between the parts of the long-extended territory of the empire had to be done overcoming the savage face of the region, broken up by precipices, furious torrents, and impassable broken paths. The Andean people were sufficient enough to overcome all these impediments of Nature and become what they were, the most powerful empire in South America and probably over the earth, taking in consideration the challenges that Nature put over them.
Pacha-Cutec reorganized the Kingdom of Cuzco into the Tahuantinsuyo, which consisted in a harmonized and central government with the Inca at its head and four cardinal governments with strong leaders: Chinchay-Suyo (North West), Anti-Suyo (NE), Conti-Suyo (SW), and Colla-Suyo (SE).
They symbolized in a way the power of the four elements -Fire, Earth, Air and Water living in harmony over the Inca land and its people.
The etymology of the word 'Andes' derives from the Quechua word 'Anti,' which means 'East' as in Anti-Suyo (Quechua for 'East Region'), one of the four Regions of the Inca Empire.
The topographical aspect of the land of the Incas is very remarkable. The Andean geography has a geological time from about 252 to 66 million years ago in which forces and events leading to a large structural deformation of the Earth's crust and uppermost mantle happened due to the interaction between tectonic plates. The Andes, an orogenic belt of mountains along the Pacific Ring of Fire, a zone of volcanic activity that encompasses the Pacific as well as the Asia-Pacific region, developed as the result of the broken up of the outermost shell of the planet into tectonic plates. The compression of the Western rim of the South American Plate due to the sub-duct of the Nazca Plate and the Antarctic Plate caused the rise of the Andes.
At the period of the European invasion, the Inca Empire stretched along the Pacific over the boundaries of today modern republics of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, and Argentina.
The date usually assigned for these extraordinary events before the invasion of the Europeans requires but little reflection to show its improbability, even when divested of supernatural accompaniments.
On the shores of Lake Titicaca extensive ruins exist at the present day, older than the pretended advent of the Incas. The date of their appearance, indeed, is manifestly irreconciliable with their sunseqwuent story. No account assigns to the Inca dynasty more than 13 princes before the European invasion.
But this number is too small to have spread over four hundred years.
We may reasonable conclude that there existed a race advanced in civilization before the time of the Incas; and, in conformity with nearly every oral tradition, we may derive this race from the neighborhood of Lake Titicaca; a conclusion strongly confirmed by the imposing architectural remains which still endure, after the lapse of so many years, on its borders.

THE SPIRIT OF COLCA AND COTAHUASI CANYONS.

In the Arequipa Region in Southern Peruvian Andes is host to some truly astounding geological and geographical formations, the Colca and Cotahuasi Canyons, each twice as deep as America's famous Grand Canyon. These are claimed to be the two deepest canyons in the planet, and a fine specimen of Arequipa's lava-sculpted topography. Arequipa, a beautiful city of Southern Peru, is one of the 3 largest cities in the country, and the ideal vantage point from which to take a tour to the canyons.
Each independently stunning, the Colca Canyon is famed for the huge Andean condors flying high above it, and the vast reserve that the Valley produce to be kept in warehouses for times of drought; and the Cotahuasi Canyon mixes glaciers with hot spas, juxtaposes millennia-old rock carvings and gold mines.
During the Inca administration there was a lot of prosperity in the agricultural and farming Villages of the Colca Valley. They built large warehouses for the conservation of corn and processed meat (jerky), fish, manufactured goods, clothing, and dried food, among other products for use in times of hardship, natural disasters, or drought. Cosequently, the name of the Valley 'Colca' is meant for having been the pantry of the Andes. Today the descendants of these people stand out as being primarily an agricultural community, who still maintain the ancient terraces and use them for the currently production of goods. For example, the corn grown in Cabana-Conde (Maiz Cabanita) is prized for its sweetness, softness, and nutritive value. In antiquity herds of llamas and alpacas came from Puno and Cuzco to barter in exchange for the famous Cabana-Conde corn.
The Town of Chivay, capital of the Caylloma Province, that lies upstream of the Colca Valley, and located at about 12,000 ft above sea level, is the local jumping off point for visitors going to the Colca, but tours and local buses also depart from Arequipa, where also rental cars are available.
The small rim-side Village of Cabana-Conde is also a good spot for a short, tough hike down into the canyon itself. Thermal Springs are located 3 km from the Chivay Town. The town also is a popular staging point for tourists visiting the Condor Cross, where condors can be seen catching thermal uplifts a few kilometers downstream.
The archaeological sites include the Caves of Molle-Punco above Callalli where rock is said to be 6,000 years old and depict the domestication of the alpaca; the mummy of Paracra, above Sibayo; the Fort of Chimpa, a reconstructed mountaintop citadel that looks down on Madrigal; Inca and pre-Inca settlements throughout the Valley, and many others.
The most distant source of the Amazon River, the world longest River (6,785 km), that crosses 3 South American countries, Peru, Colombia, and Brazil, before it ends in the Atlantic Ocean, originates from a cliff at the Glacier Mismi (5,597m/18,363ft), one of the highest peak of volcanic origin in the Colca Canyon. It is accessible from the Colca Valley via Tuti, a one-day trip to a spring at 5,120m / 16,800ft, where snow-melt from the Mismi bursts from a rock face. The waters then flow into the streams of the Carhua-Santa River and then joins with the Quebrada Apacheta, becoming the Yoqueta River. The River has several more name changes before it becomes the Apu-Rimac River.
The Nevado Mismi is a 5,597m/18,363ft mountain peak located in the Chila Mountain Range which lies in the Arequipa Region in the Provinces of Castilla and Caylloma, 160 km West of Lake Titicaca and 700 km South East of Lima, capital of Peru.
The Cotawasi Canyon, the deepest canyon in the world, is the preferred destination of thrill-seekers and extreme outdoor recreation enthusiasts. It is formed by the flow of the Cota-Huasi River as it carves its way between the Copuna and Solimana peaks, each of which towers over the ravine at more than 20,000 ft above the sea level. At its deepest point, the canyon cuts roughly 3,535 m (11,560 ft) into the earth.
The Cota-Huasi Canyon is located about 200 km (124 mi) from Arequipa in the heart of the Southern Andes. From Arequipa, there is just one road to the canyon, through the mountains, and it is accessible by bus or minibuses. It is a 10-12 hours trip from Arequipa to the small town of Cota-Huasi.
Three buses companies serve the area and typically they depart from Arequipa around 5pm to arrive in Cota-Wasi around 5am the following day.
The Death Bull Petro-glyphs are located near the small Town of Corire en route to Cotahuasi. These ancient cave paintings are estimated to be more than 10,000 years old. Archaeologists have catalogued nearly 5,000 depictions of birds, animals, and humans etched into the white volcanic rock that protrude from the mountain sides. To visit the petro-glyphs, any of the three bus companies will make a stop in Corire, which is about 3 hours from Arequipa. From Corire, a 2 km (1.2 mi) trail leads to a checkpoint where visitors sign in and pay a small fee.
The magnificent Sipia Waterfall pours off the water off the edge of the cliff, crashing at an impressive 150 m (492 ft) below. It is one of the Cota-huasi Canyon's most scenic attraction. The Waterfall is accessible either by foot or by road and is located about 10 km (6 mi) from the town of Cota-Huasi.
The Lui-Cho Thermal Baths are known for the cleansing and therapeutic qualities of its sulfuric waters.
They are the product of the geothermal activity that boils beneath the earth's surface. The thermal activity of the Volcanoes in the vicinity heats the Bath's waters to temperatures between 33*C to 38*C (90*F to 100*F). The Baths are located about 17 km (10.5 mi) from the Town of Cota-Huasi in the small Village of Alca. A small fee is collected upon entry.