Inca Homes

The inca homes were made of mud, in a single rectangular shape, the archaeologist believe that the incas use reed mats to separate the environments of the house, it was distribute with an area for the parents, an area for the children and the kitchen - living room; The incas use mud bricks for the walls and the roofs were made of wooden beams, covered with straw, the roofs were water proof but they have to be completely replace every three years.

The original inca houses are build with no windows and one entrance without a door, though it is believe that the incas use reed mats doors to protect the house from the cold at night; The inca houses were call Pirkas, the mud bricks was the primary material to build their houses, but for high status families it was use polished stone, with different qualities depending of the status of the authority living in that house.

The inca homes in the city had a different distribution, they still have the rectangular shape unique space, but they are group in six rectangular homes and a central common area; The six homes were group in a rectangle, with a mud wall around it, with two common entrances, one to the left and one to the right; The name of this multi home structure was Cancha, it was the basic construction cell of the inca cities, we assume that in each cancha lives at list six families.

The inca homes in the city did not belong permanent to one family, the inca government own everything so they decide when is time to move; The system that the incas use to maximize the use of the houses was simple, they put one couple in one rectangular space until this couple has one or two children, ones the family gets bigger, they are move to a bigger space and a new couple enter the house, big families could take a full cancha.

The kitchen of the inca homes was the center of the activity, it had a fire place for cooking and a mud oven to bake bread of corn; The inca kitchen had containers with dry food, guinea pigs walking free in the floor, dry strips of meat of llama hanging from the roof, containers with salted fish and containers with corn an other fresh vegetables, some times the kitchens were connected to small corrals with llamas.

During winter season, the llamas were use as a living warm system, it means that the llamas enter the house and sleep with the family all together to stay warm at night; Another common practice of the inca people was to keep skulls of death ancestors, they were place in a corner of the house, it was believe that the skulls will protect the family from dangerous people and bad spirits.

All inca homes had a small altar with their favorite divinities images and other important things for the family; The incas had a very strong tradition of family ties, so honor their ancestors was part of the inca daily life; All this traditions are not death because as amazing as it sounds, the inca city of Ollantaytambo in Cuzco is the very last living inca city that exist until today.

All the inca homes of the city of Ollantaytambo, follow the exactly same traditions since the inca times, it is like they are frozen in time; The Peruvian people that live in this city salt their fish, dry their meat, dry the potatoes and corn with the same technics that the incas use before, they still speak Quechua, that is the language of the incas, they still use the andenes to grow their crops, llamas to stay worm in the winter, guinean pigs in the kitchen, etc; Everything just like it was over 500 years ago.

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