The Inca road system (called Capaq Ñan or Gran Ruta Inca) was an essential part of the success of the Inca Empire. Including an estimated 40,000 kilometers in its extent, the Inca road was built for use in all kinds of climate, and intended to move people and goods–and armies when needed–across the length and breadth of the empire.
Two main roads made up the Inca Road system, one along the coastline of South America between Tumbes (Peru) and Talca (Chile), and one through the Andes highlands between Quito (Ecuador) and Mendoza (Argentina). Many other shorter routes led to different Inca provincial centers. One of the shorter segments called the Inca Trail leads to the residential palace of Pachacuti called Machu Picchu, and hundreds of thousands of hikers climb its switchbacks each year.
Inca Road Construction
Since wheeled vehicles were unknown to the Inca, the surfaces of the Inca Road were intended for foot traffic, accompanied by llamas as pack animals. Some of the roadways were paved with stone cobbles, but many others were natural dirt pathways between 1-4 meters in width.
To traverse the mountainous regions the Inca built long stairways and switchbacks; for lowland roads through marshes and wetlands they built causeways; crossing rivers and streams required bridges and culverts; and roads between desert oases were marked by low walls or cairns.
Architectural innovations along the trail included drainages through gutters and culverts, and in many places low walls delimited the road. In some places tunnels and retaining walls were built to allow safe navigation.
Lodging Along the Inca Road
Historically, people could walk along the road at the rate of about 20-22 kilometers a day. Placed along the road about about every 20-22 km were tampu, small building clusters or villages which provided lodging, food, and supplies for local business.
A postal system was an essential part of the Inca Road, with relay runners called chasqui stationed along the road at 1.4 km intervals. Information was taken along the road either verbally or stored in quipu. In special circumstances, exotic goods could be carried by the chasqui: it was reported that Sapa Inca at Cusco could dine on 2 day old fish from the coast, a travel rate of 240 km a day.
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Across the Atlantic, the period witnessed the rise of another notable road-building empire, that of the Incas. The Inca road system extended from Quito, Ecuador, through Cuzco, Peru, and as far south as Santiago, Chile. It included two parallel roadways, one along the coast about 2,250 miles in length, the other following the Andes about 3,400 miles in length with a number of cross connections. At its zenith, when the Spaniards arrived early in the 16th century, a network of some 14,000 miles of road served an area of about 750,000 square miles (1,940,000 square kilometres) in which lived nearly 10 million people. The network was praised by 16th-century explorers as superior to that in contemporary Europe.
The Andes route was remarkable. The roadway was 25 feet wide and traversed the loftiest ranges. It included galleries cut into solid rock and retaining walls built up for hundreds of feet to support the roadway. Ravines and chasms were filled with solid masonry, suspension bridges with wool or fibre cables crossed the wider mountain streams, and stone surfacing was used in difficult areas. The steeper gradients were surmounted by steps cut in the rocks. Traffic consisted entirely of pack animals (llamas) and people on foot; the Inca lacked the wheel. Yet they operated a swift foot courier system and a visual signaling system along the roadway from watchtower to watchtower.
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