WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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Ta wo to soo... Ha ha, uh,  tah wan wo seen you.

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Listen carefully: Tawantinsuyu.

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tah…   wan…   tin…   suyu

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Yeah, I'll just say, "four parts together."

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Excellent. That's what Tawantinsuyu means.

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The Inka Empire was made up of four geographic regions that they called suyus,

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Chinchaysuyu, Antisuyu, Contisuyu, and Collasuyu

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and the four parts together they called, Tawantinsuyu.

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Tawantinsuyu is Quechua for “four parts together."

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Yes, and Quechua was the main language of the Inka Empire.

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And Quechua is still spoken by 8 to 10 million Inka descendants today.

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That’s a huge number of people.

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Well, the Inka Empire was huge, the largest empire in the Americas.

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And that was more than five hundred years ago.

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And the Inka were incredibly organized.

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They had to be with that many people.

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And to keep the suyus connected and working together they built the Inka Road.

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And the Quechua name for the Inka Road …. It was?

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Oh, yes, yes. It was kap nok yan? Kap not nyan?

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Close.  Qhapaq Ñan. Qhapaq Ñan.

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First of all, a reliable, all-weather road system is essential for business, military, and official travel.

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A good road system is what allows a country, or empire, to function.

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The Inka built their road system without metal tools,

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without the wheel,

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without animals to carry heavy loads for construction

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over some of the most rugged terrain anywhere.

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Some parts were in mountains 16,000 feet above sea level,

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and the road network was 25,000 miles long.

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"How long is that?" you might say.

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Alright, how long is that?

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Let’s say you take a trip.

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If you begin in Washington, DC

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to travel 25,000 miles, you would have to go,

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um, all the way around the world

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and end up back in Washington, DC.

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A very long road trip!

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My point!

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They also invented, engineered, and built hundreds of long, high, suspension bridges

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made out of grass!

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Alright, alright, enough! They built suspension bridges out of grass?

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I mean, like grass, the “I have to mow the yard grass?“

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Exactly!

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First, they would weave a local grass called coya into small ropes.

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Then, they would braid the small ropes into big ropes

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and then build the bridge out of big ropes,

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all made of grass.

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In fact, there is an Inka grass bridge today that is rebuilt every year by the Inka descendants.

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It’s called Q'eswachaka.

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Kech a waka? Kest ta what-ch?

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Q'eswachaka, which is Quechua for braided grass bridge.

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The reason it is cool to learn about the Inka is that they were so innovative.

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You have to remember this all happened a very long time ago

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in a part of the world that is not exactly flat and easy to live in.

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Ok, ok, ok. So, give me some space. I'm going to try this.

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So, if i went to South America today, where the Inka lived,

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I could see Q'eswachaka bridge,

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part of the Qhapaq Ñan,

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that held together the Tawantinsuyu.

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And then you would appreciate what great, innovative engineers the Inka were.