The Qhapaq Ñan: Inca Royal Road System
The Inca built some 40,000 kilometres of road across the Andes, and had neither the wheel nor a draught animal capable of pulling anything. The network ran from what is now southern Colombia to central Chile — about 5,000 kilometres north to south — in two main trunk routes, one along the coast and one through the mountains, with lateral roads connecting them across some of the steepest terrain on earth. It was built for people on foot and for llama trains, and it shows: stairways cut into rock faces, causeways across marshes, tunnels, and suspension bridges of woven ichu grass across gorges, rewoven annually by the communities on either side as a labour obligation. The Q'eswachaka bridge over the Apurímac is still rebuilt every June. Its purpose was administrative rather than commercial. The Inca state moved armies, officials, tribute and resettled populations along it, and ran a relay system of chaski runners posted at intervals of a few kilometres, who could carry a message — or fresh fish for the emperor — from Quito to Cusco in about a week. Storehouses at intervals held food, cloth and weapons. The state also recorded on it. Quipus, knotted cord records, travelled with the runners, and the accounting they encoded is only partly deciphered. Roadside stations called tambos supplied travellers on state business, and unauthorised use was forbidden. The Spaniards used the roads to conquer the empire, and then let most of them decay because horses and carts wanted something else. Some 30,000 kilometres of it were named a World Heritage Site in 2014, shared by six countries.
- Year: 1438 CE
- Category: Cultural
