From the 100 Facts for 100 years of Machu Picchu- Fact #5

By Catharine Hamm Los Angeles Times Travel Editor

5. The Incas, who created incredible architecture and political systems, had no known written system of language, although some scientists suggest khipu may also have served that function.

'According to the anonymous seventeenth-century author of the Quito Manuscript, ancient Andeans once possessed a writing system (qillqa) that they replaced with knotted strings (khipu) as part of the religious and sexual reform of their nation. The manuscript's redactor, Fernando de Montesinos, added to the text his own speculations about Andean writing, which he linked to the Tree of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden. For both of these authors, ideas about indigenous "writing" were not neutral, but were intertwined with arguments about the moral and cultural merits of Andean civilization. This essay explores how each author's claims about writing and knotted strings—qillqa and khipu—were intrinsic to their political and theological aims, fitting into a larger discourse about the justification of colonial rule. ^{' -} Sabine Hyland St Norbet College

Many of the Pre-Colombian cultures communicated in art and architechure.  At Chan Chan the Chimu Culture had a detailed calendar of ocean currents.  The calendar indicated which months the currents came from the south and which months from the north for fishing.  The Incas used both a solar and lunar calendar.  In Cusco, authorities maintained a seasonal clock that consisted of a 365 day solar calendar with 12 months each consisting of 30 days.  A twelve month lunar calendar was also kept that consisted of 41 eight day weeks for a total of a 328 day year.  The Incas celebrated the summer and winter solstice each year - the winter solstice celebration can still be witnessed at the festival of Inti Raymi celebrated June 24th each year.

Chan Chan

Prior to the Incas the Chimu Culture lived in the fertile valley area near modern day Trujillo in northern Peru. Descendants of the great Moche Culture who built the great Pyramids of Sol y Luna the Chumu Culture had some similarities to the Moche and some distinct differences in the way they lived. Like the Moche the Chimu lived off the fruit of the sea, they used adobe as their main construction material, they decorated their construction and their ceramics with paintings done in yellows, reds, blacks and whites.

However unlike the Moche's the Chamu did not build enormous pyramids with the city between them – the Chimu built Chan Chan. At 7.7 square miles Chan Chan was the largest pre-Columbian city in the Americas. The city was built with a triangular shaped walled city with the outside protective walls stretching 50 – 60 feet in to the air. It was comprised of 10 walled citadels which housed palaces, burial chambers, temples, boulevards, ceremonial plazas and springs were dug and reservoirs created so that they would have fresh water. The exterior walls made the city so impregnable that even after a lengthy 10 year war, the only way the Inca's were capable of conquering the city was to finally cut off water supply by breaking the aqueduct system that had been built to provide water to the farms and city.

The Chimu so hated the Incas that when the Spanish arrived they welcomed them with open arms. Francisco Pizzaro and Diego de Almagro established the neighboring city of Trujillo named after Pizzaro's home in Spain. The Chimu quickly abandoned Chan Chan and the once great city laid in waste to the environment. Winds and rain during years of el nino would deteriorate the city's walls and the colorful murals. For hundred of years there it sat until in 1969 a Harvard mission headed by Michael E. Moseley came to study Chan Chan. 

Today mapping of the site is incomplete and archaeological exploration has only just begun. A restoration effort is underway reconstructing much of the city to look as it did during the time of the Chimu. Visiting Chan Chan is one of the highlights in the northern kingdoms of Peru.  Currently only the Tschudi Palace is open to visitors. However as you enter the site you can see the once great city has been cut in half by the Pan-American highway only to imagine how awe inspiring it must have been.