Descendants Of The Incas In Peru: Amazing Photographs By National Geographic (PHOTOS)

PHOTOS: Peruvian Descendants Of The Incas

On the remote Peruvian island of Taquile, in the middle of the great Lake Titicaca, hundreds of people stand in silence on the plaza as a local Roman Catholic priest recites a prayer. Descended in part from Inca colonists sent here more than 500 years ago, the inhabitants of Taquile keep the old ways. They weave brilliantly colored cloth, speak the traditional language of the Inca, and tend their fields as they have for centuries. On festival days they gather in the plaza to dance to the sound of wooden pipes and drums.

More information on Taquile and Peru can be found in the April 2011 issue of National Geographic magazine, on newsstands March 29.

All photos by Robert Clark for National Geographic.

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