Early Accounts
The first recorded accounts of Incan water transportation structures came from Spanish conquistadores in the 16th Century. One such explorer was Pedro Cieza de León. In his published chronicles detailing his travels through Peru, he noted seeing a large wall as he headed east from Cuzco, which scholars argue the he was referring to the aqueduct at the Piquillacta archeological sire. Cieza writes:
- "Along this road there is a very large, broad wall, along the top of which, according to the natives, ran pipes of water, laboriously brought from some river and piped in with the forethought and care they used in building their irrigation ditches."
Noted American archeologist Ephraim George Squier noted several aqueducts during his exploration of Peru in the late 1800s, including those that watered gardens on the terraces of the Yucay Valley, north of Cuzco. He also recorded an account of the ruins of a sixty-foot high aqueduct in the foothills of the Andes near Lima.
Read more about this topic: Incan Aqueducts
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