Andenes and acequias — the terrace-and-canal engineering of the Inca fields

The stepped terraces that still contour the Andes and the long canals that fed them are described in engineering detail in book V of Garcilaso's Comentarios reales: retaining walls built three deep and battered inward, hillsides climbed terrace by terrace "á manera de escalera", canals carried fifteen and twenty leagues to water a few fanegas, and a named corps of "ingenieros de acequias de agua" whose works were still visible in his day. Read from the page.