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Concept
Andén
Summary
An andén (plural andenes), 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 a planting area for crops. The best known andenes are in Peru, especially in the Sacred Valley 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.
The benefits of andenes include utilizing steep slopes for agriculture, reducing the threat of freezes, increasing exposure to sunshine, controlling erosion, improving absorption of water, and aerating the soil. The construction and use of andenes for crops enabled agriculture in the Andes to expand into climatically marginal areas of low or seasonal rainfall, low temperatures, and thin soils.
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 essential for the subsistence of a growing population after 900 BCE. People of the Huarpa culture and the later Wari culture (500–1000 CE) built terraces into the hillsides of the Andes in Peru. During the Inca Empire (1438–1533 CE) the technology and the quantity of land devoted to andenes reached their highest levels. Archaeologists estimate that andenes covered about of land and contributed substantially to feeding the approximately ten million people ruled by the Incas.
The Spanish conquest of Peru in 1533 led to a demographic collapse in the Andes, as the Indigenous population precipitously declined due to European diseases and war.
Official source
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