The Inca road system (also spelled Inka road system and in Qhapaq=rich, powerful, opulent, wealthy, privileged; ñan=road, way, path, route. Source "Diccionario quechua - español - quechua" Gobierno Regional Cusco - Cusco – Second edition, 2005 meaning "royal road"Martínez Martínez, Guadalupe (2010). Qhapaq Ñan: el camino inca y las transformaciones territoriales en los Andes Peruanos - Arqueología y Sociedad, Nº 21, 2010 – www.revistasinvestigacion.unmsm.edu.pe/index.php/Arqueo/article/download/12277/10985) was the most extensive and advanced transportation system in pre-Columbian South America. It was about long in total. The construction of the roads required a large expenditure of time and effort.
The network was composed of formalKrzanowski Andrzej. Observaciones acerca de la construcción y el trazado de algunos tramos del camino inca en los Andes peruanos - Kraków, Poland - http://www.farkha.nazwa.pl/contributions/pcnwa/cnwa/CNWA2.4.pdf roads carefully planned, engineered, built, marked and maintained; paved where necessary, with stairways to gain elevation, bridges and accessory constructions such as retaining walls, and water drainage systems. It was based on two north–south roads: one along the coast and the second and most important inland and up the mountains, both with numerous branches. It can be directly compared with the road network built during the Roman Empire, although the Inca road system was built one thousand years later. The road system allowed for the transfer of information, goods, soldiers and persons, without the use of wheels, within the Tawantinsuyu or Inca Empire throughout a territory covering almost Raffino, Rodolfo et al. Rumichaca: el puente inca en la cordillera de los Chichas (Tarija, Bolivia) – in "Arqueologia argentina en los incios de un nevo siglo" pags 215 to 223 and inhabited by about 12 million people."Colapso Demografico en la población de la colonia" - https://historiaperuana.pe/periodo-colonial/virreinato/la-poblacion-en-el-virreinato/
The roads were bordered, at intervals, with buildings to allow the most effective usage: at short distance there were relay stations for chasquis, the running messengers; at a one-day walking interval tambos allowed support to the road users and flocks of llama pack animals. Administrative centers with warehouses, called qullqas, for re-distribution of goods were found along the roads. Towards the boundaries of the Inca Empire and in newly conquered areas pukaras (fortresses) were found.
Part of the road network was built by cultures that precede the Inca Empire, notably the Wari culture in the northern central Peru and the Tiwanaku culture in Bolivia. Different organizations such as UNESCO and IUCN have been working to protect the network in collaboration with the governments and communities of the six countries (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina) through which the Great Inca Road passes.
In modern times some remnant of the roads see heavy use from tourism, such as the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, which is well known by trekkers.
A 2021 study found that its effects have lingered for over 500 years, with wages, nutrition and school levels higher in communities living within 20 kilometers of the Inca Road, compared to similar communities farther away.Voxeu.org: "Long-term effects of the Inca Road"
Extent
The Tawantinsuyu, which integrated the current territories of Peru, continued towards the north through present-day Ecuador, reaching the northernmost limits of the Andean mountain range in the region of Los Pastos in Colombia; by the South, it penetrated down to the Mendoza and Atacama lands, in the southernmost reaches of the Empire, corresponding currently with Argentine and Chilean territories. On the Chilean side, the road reached the Maipo river. The Inca Road system connected the northern territories with the capital city Cusco and the southern territories. About , out of the more than that the Andean mountains spans, were covered by it.Ministerio de Cultura de Peru (2011). Qhapaq Ñan, el Camino Inca - Lima
As indicated by Hyslop, "The main route of the sierra (mountains) that passes through Quito, Tumebamba, Huánuco, Cusco, Chucuito, Paria and Chicona to the Mendoza River, has a length of 5,658 km." (3,516 miles)
The exact extent of the road network is not known: travelers and scholars proposed various lengths, spanning from Hyslop, John (1984). The Inca Road System (Studies in Archaeology) - New York: Institute of Andean Research - Academic Press INC – Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers to to .Mattos, Ramiro (2015). El Qhapaq Ñan del Tawantinsuyu: reflexiones sobre su significado político y social en el presente andino - Revista de Antropología del Museo de Entre Ríos 12-20 (2015) Two main routes were defined: the eastern one, inland, runs high in the puna grassland, a large and undulating surface, which extends above ; the second one, the western route, that starts from the region of Tumbes in the current Peru–Ecuador border, follows the coastal plains, but does not include the coastal deserts, where it hugs the foothills. This western road outlines the current Pan-American Highway in its South American pacific extension.
Recent investigations carried out under the Proyecto Qhapaq Ñan, sponsored by the Peruvian government and basing also on previous research and surveys, suggest with a high degree of probability that another branch of the road system existed on the east side of the Andean ridge, connecting the administrative centre of Huánuco Pampa with the Amazonian provinces and having a length of about .Ministerio de Cultura del Perú (2016). Guía de Identificación y Registro del Qhapaq Ñan – Lima
More than twenty transversal routes ran over the western mountains, while others traversed the eastern cordillera in the mountains and lowlands, connecting the two main routes and populated areas, administrative centres, agricultural and mining zones, as well as ceremonial centres and sacred spaces in different parts of the vast Inca territory. Some of these roads reach altitudes of over above sea level.
The four routes
During the Inca Empire, the roads officially stemmed from Cusco into the 4 cardinal directions towards the 4 suyus (provinces) into which the Tawantinsuyu was divided. Cusco was the center of Peru: the Inca-Spanish chronicler Inca Garcilaso de la Vega statesGarcilaso Inca de la Vega – "Primera parte de los comentarios reales de los incas, escrita por Garcilaso Inca de la Vega y publicada en 1609, en Lisboa" --- http://museogarcilaso.pe/mediaelement/pdf/3-ComentariosReales.pdf that "Cozco in the language of the Incas means navel that is the Earth's navel". The four regions were named Chinchaysuyu towards the North, Collasuysu towards the South, Antisuyu towards the East and the lower valleys of the Amazon region and Contisuyu towards the West and the lower valleys along the Pacific coast.
The route towards the North was the most important in the Inca Empire, as shown by its constructive characteristics: a width ranging between 3 and 16 m and the size of the archaeological vestiges that mark the way both in its vicinity and in its area of influence. It is not coincidental that this path goes through and organizes the most important administrative centers of the Tawantinsuyu outside Cusco, such as Vilcashuamán, Xauxa, Tarmatambo, Pumpu, Huánuco Pampa, Cajamarca and Huancabamba, in current territories of Peru; and Ingapirca, Tomebamba or Riobamba in Ecuador. This was regarded by the Incas as "the" Qhapaq Ñan, main road or royal road, starting from Cusco and arriving in Quito. From Quito northwards, the Inca presence is perceived in defensive settlements that mark the advance of the Empire by the Ecuadorian provinces of Carchi and Imbabura and the current Nariño Department in Colombia, which in the 16th century was in process of being incorporated into the Inca Empire.Lumbreras, Luis Guillermo (2004).Presentación. Proyecto Qhapaq Ñan Informe de Campaña 2002-2003. Instituto Nacional de Cultura, Lima,
The route of Qollasuyu leaves Cusco and points towards the South, splitting into two branches to skirt Lake Titicaca (one on the east and one the west coast) that join again to cross the territory of the Bolivian Altiplano. From there the roads were unfolding to advance towards the southernmost boundaries of the Tawantinsuyu. One branch headed towards the current Mendoza region of Argentina, while the other penetrated the ancient territories of the Diaguita and Atacama people in Chilean lands, who had already developed basic road networks. From there, crossing the driest desert in the world, the Atacama Desert, the Qollasuyu route reached the Maipo river, currently in the Santiago metropolitan region. From there no vestiges of the Inca advance have been found.
Contisuyu roads allowed to connect Cusco to coastal territories, in what corresponds to the current regions of Arequipa, Moquegua and Tacna, in the extreme Peruvian south. These roads are transversal routes that guaranteed the complementarity of natural resources, since they cross very varied ecological floors, in the varied altitude of the descent from the heights of the cordillera to the coastal spaces.
The roads of the Antisuyu are the least known and a lesser number of vestiges were registered. They penetrated into the territories of the Ceja de Jungla or Amazonian Andes leading to the Amazon rainforest, where conditions are more difficult for the conservation of archaeological evidences. The true physical extension of the Inca Empire for this region is not very clear.
Purposes of the road The Incas used the road system for a variety of reasons, from transportation for people who were traveling through the Empire to military and religious purposes. The road system allowed for a fast movement of persons from one part of the Empire to the other: both armies and workers used the roads to move and the tambos to rest and be fed. It also allowed for the fast movement of information and valuable small goods which traveled through the chasquis.Lavado, Pablo; Franco, Ana Paula (2017). Long-term effects of the Inca Road System on development - Universidad del Pacífico The Incas gave priority to the straightness of the roads, whenever possible, to shorten the distances.