The Inca build the Qhapaq Ñan

The Inca built a network of roads linking their empire across the Andes. UNESCO lists the Qhapaq Nan as a World Heritage Site and describes the network as about 30,000 km of roads.

Total length varies by source and by what is counted. UNESCO's inscribed portion covers only selected sections.

Context

The Inca expanded rapidly in the 15th century and used the roads to move armies, officials and messengers. Qhapaq Nan means 'royal road' in Quechua. UNESCO describes the network as about 30,000 km linking the Andes with the coast and lowland areas.

The inscribed World Heritage property is a much smaller selection of the network. UNESCO's text lists component sections and associated archaeological sites in six countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Its own pages quote different totals for the number of components and the length protected, so that figure should be treated with care.

The system included stone steps, bridges, causeways and rest stations along the route. The Inca had no wheeled transport, and travelers moved on foot or with llamas.

Inca officials used relay runners called chasqui to carry messages along the roads, and storehouses along the route supplied armies and travelers. Rope suspension bridges crossed river gorges, and the best-known example, Q'eswachaka in Peru, is rebuilt every year by local communities. The roads reached from what is now southern Colombia to central Chile, and the Inca empire existed for less than a century before the Spanish conquest of the 1530s.