Classic Inca Trail 4 Days
The Inca Trail 4 days to Machu Picchu is in fact a small part of large network of trails and footpath built by the ( quechuas) Incan Empire over 500 years ago in the whole peru andes even in some part of the amazon rain forest.This backetlist is a dream for whole those adventures people from all over the world.
Depending on which resource you read, the Inca trail 4 days (or Qhapaq Ñan), which means the longes network of footpath) are estimated to have covered anywhere between 23,000km and 45,000km in distance – basically a lot!
Consisting of mainly paved stone footpath, the trails were carefully connected with the whole Tahuantinsuyo Inca Empire, which cover from Colombia and Ecuador in the North; through Peru; Chile and parts of Argentina, and Bolivia.
The trails change in size from 2-4m roads at their widest (typically in the coastal areas) to narrow 1m trails in the slope mountainous regions of the Andes.
The Inca trail were used for a different of reasons including trade, efficient transport and war. Peruvian historian, José Antonio del Busto, believes the trails expanded rapidly under the rule of Huayna Capac, who is thought to have added 16,000km of trail to the network. Del Busto explains: “It is said (Capac) placed emphasis on the roads so as to be able to get his army around quicker and be able to crush the rebellions that flared up during his reign.”
The one very unique characteristic of the Inca Trail 4 days is that they were built with the llama mind. The trails, particularly in the slope mountain region, are steep, stepped and high – landscape characteristics that llama are well adept at traversing.
Author Hugh Thomson writes in his acclaimed and highly recommended book, the white rock “We are used to a road system designed for the horse and then for the car: a system which tries at all cost to avoid steep gradients and whose ideal (so established by the Romans) is the straight road over flat ground. The Inca needs were very different: the expansion of their Empire was driven by the llama”.
When the Spanish arrived in Peru in the 15th century they were amazed by the scale, ingenuity and beauty of the trails, despite having severe difficulty traversing them on horseback. Hernando Pizarro, one of the first conquistadors to arrive in Cusco, wrote, “The path in of the mountains is something to see, because it is built in very difficult terrain. In the Christian World we have not seen such beautiful roads. All of the crossings have bridges of stone or of wood.”
Unlike the majority of trails, which were used for practical means, the Inca trail to Machu Picchu was solely used as a pilgrimage or religious route. It had no commercial use and is hence often referred to as the “Royal Road”, “Royal Sacred Highway” or “The Road of the Inca King”. The various Inca sites found along the 27-mile (45km) trail seems to support this theory.
hiram binghan, an American academic and explorer, who discovered Machu Picchu in 1911, was amazed when he discovered the pilgrimage route leading to the city. Between 1913-1915 Bingham and his team uncovered much of the overgrown trail, and in the 1990s large portions of the route were restored.
Today, the trail, which is situated in the Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu, is considered one of the greatest trekking trails in the world and is hiked by thousands of tourists every year.
This amazing Inca Trail 4 Days is possible to do in short time too, this Short Inca Trail Trek 2 Days was carefully designed for people how does not have much time to commplite the 4 days Inca Trail
