Among the many roads and trails constructed in South America, the Inca road systems in Peru are most extensive yet constructed on the South American continent. Traversing the Andes mountains and reaching heights of over 5 km (16,500 feet) above sea level, the trails connected the regions of the Inca empire from the northern provincial capital in Quito, Ecuador past the modern city of Santiago, Chile in the south. The Inca road system covered approximately 22,530 km (14,000 mi) and provided access to over three million km² of territory.

These trails were used by the Inca people as a means of relaying messages and transporting goods. The messages were carried via quipu, books, and oral methods. Messages could be carried by runners at a speed of 242 km (150 miles) per day. These would work in relay fashion much like the Pony Express of the 1860's, in North America.

There were approximately 2,000 inns, or tambos, placed at even intervals along the 30,000 kilometers (18,640 miles) of Inca trails. The inns provided food, shelter and military supplies to the 300,000 bureaucrats who traveled the roads in this organized and civilized empire. There were corrals for llamas and stored provisions such as corn, lima beans, dried potatoes, and llama jerky. Along the roads, local villagers would plant fruit trees that were watered by irragation ditches. This enabled chasqui runners and other travelers to be refreshed while on their journeys. Rope bridges provided access across valleys with intricate steps carved up and down to the bridges.

Many of the trails converge on the center of the empire, the Inca capital city of Cusco. It was therefore easy for the Spanish conquistadors to locate the city. However, the Incas did not make use of the wheel as many western civilizations had. It was also not until the arrival of the Spanish in Peru that horses were used for transportation. Traversing the trails on horseback proved to be difficult and treacherous for the Spanish in their attempts to conquer the Inca Empire. Unaccustomed to the high altitude, weakened by the cold, and frequently ambushed by their enemies, many conquistadors lost their lives on the Inca trails.

See also

• Inca: Lords of Gold and Glory. Virginia: Time-Life Books, 1992.
• Andean World: Indigenous History: Culture and Consciousness by Kenneth Adrien.