22 Inca Facts

My family is going to Cusco, including me and we are going to Machu Picchu which was sacred to the Incas so we have learned all we could about the Incas.  Here are 22 inca facts. 

Inca facts  

1. Incas lived in small houses with small windows and small doors because it was so cold.  
   
2. They believed that their king, the Sapa Inca was descended from their sun God, Inti. 
3. The didn’t know how to read and write so we have no written records of their history from them.
4. Machu Picchu is the sacred town of the Incas.  They chose its location because mountains were sacred to them and Machu Picchu is on a mountain.  There is a also a river running around three sides of the mountain.  Rivers were considered sacred too.
   
    
5. Cusco was their capital city.   Today you can see the Sun Temple there. 
6. There were a lot of farmers.  They grew corn and they made chicha beer from it.   
7. The Incan Empire was called by them Tawantinsuyo, which meant Land of the Four Quarters. It stretched for over 2500 miles, along the west coast of South America, which is almost as wide than the width of the United States.   
8. The Inca Rulers had their ear lobes stretched out with earrings to make huge holes to wear the earrings in. 
   
9. Huayna Capac, son of Manco Capac, son of Inti, divided his empire between his two sons who were called Atahualpa and Huascar.  They fought with each other and so the empire grew weaker.  So they couldn’t defend themselves against the Spanish and so the Spanish took over. 
10. Most of the Incas were killed by diseases brought by the Europeans.  Probably nearly two thirds were killed by smallpox and other infectious diseases. 
11. Machu Picchu was used for only a century.  It was no longer in use when the Spanish came along so it was never discovered and was taken over by the jungle. 
12. Machu Picchu was discovered in 1911 by Hiram Bingham.  There was no gold or precious materials found there, only pots and lots of mummified people, often children. 
13. Some children were sacrificed to the gods.  They got taken up into the mountains, given a drug to make them sleep and then they got left to freeze to death.  
14. They were polytheists which means they worshipped many gods, including Inti the Sun god, Pachamama, Inti’s wife, Mother Earth. 
15. According to the Inca, Viracocha was the creator of all the other gods and the original all-powerful God.
16. Pachacamac was the god of the creation of earth and the fire god. 
17. Manco Capac was the son of Inti and considered to be the first Sapa Inca and the first created man. 
18. Mama Coca was the goddess of health and joy
19. Mama Ocllo, Manco Capac’s sister, was the daughter of Inti and considered to be the goddess of fertility.  
20. Mama Quilla was the goddess of the moon.  
21. They never invented the wheel.  

22. They drunk chicha morada made from purple corn.