Qhapac Ñan: The Great Inca Trail

The Qhapac Ñan, or main road in Quechua, is a 30.000 km network of road and logistics infrastructure that served as communication channel, trade road, and defense system during the pinnacle of the Great Inca Empire. This Andean road system was the backbone that connected the towns of Tawantinsuyo (the four integrated regions, or suyos of the empire) through lodgings, ceremonial centers, warehouses, and roads that still today converge to the main square of Cusco, the capital of the empire, connecting it with remote locations that are nowadays found along six  South American countries as, in addition to Peru, the fellow countries of Argentina, Bolivia, Chili, Colombia y Ecuador. 

The construction of the road system challenged the local geography, imposing itself on snow-capped mountains, tropical rainforests, and arid deserts, bearing witness to the advanced engineering and geographical mastery of the pre-Inca civilizations that created the various sections of the route unified under the Inca administration from Cusco. In addition to being an archaeological legacy and a trace of a great ancient civilization, its value lies in being a living heritage that connects the past and present of South American Andean peoples. 

The Qhapac Ñan was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014.