Andén

This article is about agricultural terraces in the Andes. For the Norwegian village, see Andenes. For the Danish comedian, see Anders Matthesen. For the island in Norway, see Anda, Norway.

Andenes in the Sacred Valley, close to Pisac, Perú

Anden, Spanish for "platform", is a stair-step like terrace dug into the slope of a hillside for agricultural purposes. The term is most often used to refer to the terraces built by Pre-Columbian cultures in the Andes mountains of South America. Andenes had several functions the most important of which was to increase the amount of cultivatable land available to farmers by leveling the planting area for crops. The most impressive examples of andenes are in Peru, especially near the Inca capital of Cuzco and in the Colca Canyon. Many andenes have survived for more than 500 years and are still in use by farmers throughout the region.

Origin and history

Agricultural terraces have been built and used by farmers around the world for thousands of years mainly for the purpose of permitting cultivation on steep hillsides. The origin of terraces or andenes in the Andes is poorly understood, but they were being built by 2000 BCE. Agriculture became more important after 900 BCE and terraces were built in the central Andes of Peru by people of the Huarpa culture and the later Wari culture (500-1000 CE). During the Inca Empire (1438-1533) the technology and the quantity of land devoted to andenes reached their highest levels. Andenes are estimated by archaeologists to have covered about 1,000,000 hectares (2,500,000 acres) of land and to have contributed substantially to feeding the approximately ten million people ruled by the Incas.

Diagram of Inca engineering of irrigation through terrace system.

The Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire in 1533 led to a demographic collapse in the Andes as the Indigenous population precipitously declined due to European diseases and war. With population pressure reduced, much of the reduced population relocated their to flatter and more easily cultivated lands. Also, the Spanish introduced draft animals and plows. Andenes were difficult to access by these innovations, being most suitable for the hand tiller. In the 19th century with population growth, an increased number of andenes came back into use for crops.

Micro-climate modification

In the steep terrain of Andes, flat and good farming land was scarce and the primary purpose the andenes was to expand the amount of cultivatable land. The adverse climate for agriculture in much of the Andes was another negative factor for agriculture which the use of andenes helped overcome. Much of the Inca Empire was found at elevations about sea-level of more than 3,000 metres (9,800 ft). Settlements and agriculture reached upwards to an altitude of about 4,200 metres (13,800 ft).

The rivers that flow through the Andean mountain range form narrow valleys in the regions above altitudes of 500 meters. Unlike the topography of the Peruvian coast where irrigation by canals allows cultivation of the desert plains, the very narrow and deep valleys in the mountainous zones prohibit large scale agriculture. The ancient Andeans, who needed farmland in addition to that provided by their narrow valleys, attempted to gain more usable land at the cost of the mountains and created the first andenes.

The scale of the andenes does not seem to have been very important until approximately the sixth century, when the Wari, or Huari, government began a mass construction of Andenes in the region of Ayacucho, which involved a large inversion of the labor force. At this time the Wari acquired geopolitical importance and began their expansion into the Central Andes in what is considered the first Andean empire (500–900 AD).

In the successive centuries they refined the technique of construction of the Andenes, incorporating layers of different materials into the filling, in order to better control drainage compared to the same rainfall. In the fifteenth century the Incas brought the architecture of the Andenes to their utmost splendor, investing considerable resources not only in the filling but also in the quality of the stone walls.

In the Incan period the Andenes were used to other ends, specifically to control the erosion of the mountains where they constructed their ceremonial centers. For example, a good part of Andean construction in the extreme west of Machu Picchu appears to be structural.

Famous collections of Andenes

Andenes in the Colca Canyon.

Andenes on Lake Titicaca.

The Andenes possess an appeal beyond the historical and their original economic motivations: they are also landscape resources whose situation in the Andes Mountains has notable aesthetic value. Many of them follow the natural curve of the slopes in such a way that preserves the visual harmony of the environment. The idea of hanging gardens in the mountains can fit well with the description of the Andenes.

Between the center of Peru and the north of Bolivia one finds the best conserved collection of andenes. Perhaps the most impressive Andenes zone is the Colca Canyon (Valle de Colca), whose terraces were constructed by the Collaguas beginning in the 11th century. Those on the islands in Lake Titicaca (constructed by the Aymara) are visually stunning, as are those in the so-called Sacred Valley of the Incas (Valle Sagrado de los Incas) in Cusco, those constructed by the Incas in Moray (Inca ruin) in a collection of concentric circles, as well as the enormous terraces at Pisaq and Ollantaytambo. A good part of these Andenes are used to this day, which illustrates the quality of their design.

See also

• Agriculture
• Incan agriculture
• Terrace (agriculture)

External links

• Tecnología agraria en el antiguo Perú. [1]
• Agricultura de laderas a través de andenes, Perú.[2]