San Juan Basin Archaeological Society will present a lecture about the Great Inca Road – “The Great Inca Road: A Prehistoric Highway Engineering Marvel” – at 7 p.m. May 9 in the Center of Southwest Studies Lyceum at Fort Lewis College, 1000 Rim Drive.
Kenneth Wright, founder of the Denver-based engineering firm Wright Water Engineers, will describe the engineering of the road. From Chile to Ecuador, the 24,000-mile Inca road system, a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage Site, joins six countries in South America and gave people, goods and armies mobility through deserts and mountain ranges.
The infrastructure of the road system included drainage works, water-supply fountains, tambos, road section markers, bridges, guard houses, security checkpoints, soil-stabilization terraces, retaining walls, religious and ceremonial buildings, and uniform road widths.
In 1994, Wright started to research ancient water works construction and water handling at Machu Picchu, Tipon, Moray and Ollantaytambo in Peru, and in the American Southwest. His study of the Inca road system earned him six academic awards from Peru universities, a decoration from the president of Peru and an honorary doctorate from University of Wisconsin.
An installation consulted by Wright, the Inca road is currently being featured in an exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.
A social will be held before the lecture at 6:30 p.m.
For more information, visit swcenter.fortlewis.edu or www.sjbas.org.
