Queswachaca Bridge built every year in Cusco

This is one of the last bridge of Inca tradition in the Peruvian Andes. At the beginning, the Inca Empire had to consolidate the lines of communication between the different regions. Yet, because of rugged landscapes and numerous natural disasters (inundations, earthquake, landslide, etc…), the maintenance of masterpieces was complicated. They came to the conclusion that the most adapted solution would be to have a bridge they could deployed and remove as they desire, using local materials quickly available and in large quantity. 

With dry grass named “ichu”, crushed, wet and braided into little cords each time more dense, they obtain big cords very resistant. Then, these cords, arranged, braided, attached together, became a cord bridge that men will attach from a side to the other side of the precipice. This is a collective work that require time, organization and collaboration. It is accompanied by dances and traditional magic rites, in order to ask to the Apus for building this line of communication carefully. At the end of the work, at the moment of the bridge inauguration, there are explosion of joy, music, dance and alcohol during the entire day.

More than 1000 local farmers participate each year, in June, to the construction of Queswachaca Bridge. So this is a suspended bridge, hanging at 33m above the Apurimac River, at 100km from Cusco. And every year, during the rainy season, they retire it, according to the strategic use the Incas had and which endure until today.