Classic Inca Trail to Machu Picchu
The Qhapac-Ñan or royal road, is one of the greatest works of engineering and state power that very few cultures came to hold in our pre-Columbian America, the first news about its existence is obtained with the first Spanish chroniclers, who accompanied their armies in the campaigns of conquest throughout the inter-Andean alley. In the year 1533, the overseer Estete, who accompanied Hernando Pizarro on his journey from Cajamarca to Pachacamac, when referring to the Inca road, highlights that: “most of it was cobbled and made of ditches where the water runs”, (Guaman Poma 1936, 355-356), authors such as Humboldt, who traveled it at the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century, describe the Inca road network as: “one of the most useful and same time the most gigantic works ever carried out by man” (Guamán Poma 1936, 355-356), more contemporary researchers, such as Regal, Ravines, Lumbreras, Espinoza and Hyslop himself were dazzled by its majesty which still causes admiration today.
