Inca rope bridge across Apurimac Canyon Peru
by James Brunker
Title
Inca rope bridge across Apurimac Canyon Peru
Artist
James Brunker
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
The last surviving Inca rope suspension bridge can be found at Q'eswachaca / Q'eswachaka / Keswachaka in the Cusco Region, where it crosses the upper Apurimac River. Every year villagers of the nearby communities rebuild the bridge by hand in the traditional fashion, starting by weaving new ropes from the local grass. In Inca times maintaining the roads and bridges that connected the empire was part of a labour tax (or mita / mit'a) that all communities had to perform as service to the Inca.
The bridge and its rebuilding process were added to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage List (Lista de Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial de la Humanidad) in 2013. Many more images of the rebuilding process can be seen in my main image library in this gallery if you are interested: https://www.magicalandes.com/-/galleries/peruvian-festivals/rebuilding-the-last-inca-rope-bridge-qeswachaka
Photograph © James Brunker. Reproduction, transmission or publication in any form without written permission strictly prohibited.
Uploaded
June 19th, 2022
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Viewed 289 Times - Last Visitor from Ottawa, ON - Canada on 04/25/2024 at 1:06 PM
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Comments (2)
Dennis Baswell
wow scary footbridge James
James Brunker replied:
This was shortly before they replaced the old, sagging one with a new bridge, which is much more solid! An amazing and unique rebuilding process that local communities do every year, I have a gallery with images here if you're interested: https://www.magicalandes.com/-/galleries/peruvian-festivals/rebuilding-the-last-inca-rope-bridge-qeswachaka