12. The Inca - Cities in the Cloud
Fall of Civilizations Podcast
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The Morai of the Andes
Morai is a series of circular terraces about 30 meters deep. Stone walls absorb the heat of the sun during the day and then slowly release it into the earth throughout the night when frosts in the mountains could be severe. Morai is located at a height of three and a half thousand meteres above sea level. Its descending terraces act as a kind of artificial climate, with each terrace increasing the temperature as you descend in steady increments. In fact, the temperature difference from the top to the bottom of this well can be as much as 15 degrees celsius. These ingenious techniques made the people of the andes some of the earliest masters of bio engineering.
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