The Inca Trail or Qapac Ñan, which comes from the Quechua language meaning royal road or king’s road. The Inca Trail was a system of roads that linked cities, towns and other roads with the Tahuantinsuyo with the capital of the Inca empire Cusco.
The distance it covered was more than 30,000 kilometers in length, which allowed it to
communication with the annexes in the process of expansion of the Incas, constituting a means of political, administrative, socio-economic and cultural integration. The Inca Trail was also present in Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Argentina and Peru.
Division of the network of the Inca Trail or Qapac Ñan in the Tahuantinsuyo (regions of the Inca empire).
- Northern Inca Trail with Chinchaysuyo
- Inca Trail Southeast with Collasuyo
- Southwest Inca Trail with Contisuyo
- Inca Trail East with the Antisuyo
The beginning of great Inca roads was by orders of the Inca Pachacutec, who saw the need to build roads for a better Inca organization, the road was not only to move armies, officials or the people also served to transport products harvested in the territories of the Inca empire. All roads led to Cusco which was the capital of the Inca empire.
The Inca road network consisted of three basic elements: roads, bridges and reservoirs.
Distribution of the Inca Trail
The Inca Trail, north coast, departed from Cusco, linking the towns of Palpa, Nazca, Huarmey, Ayabaca (Peru), Quito (Ecuador), Pasto (Colombia).
The Inca Trail of the northern highlands started in Cusco and connected the towns of Vilcahuaman, Jauja, Tarma, Huanuco, Pincosmarca, Huaritambo, Maraycalle, Huancabamaba, Piscobamaba, Siguas, Conchuco, Andamarca, Huamachuco, Cajamarca, Chachapoyas, Tumibamba and Loja in Peru.
The Inca Trail, south coast, started from Cusco and linked the towns of Pisco, Nazca, Palpa, Ica, Tambo Colorado, Catarpe in Peru, Arica, Maule River and Copiapó in Chile and the pampas of Tucumán in Argentina.
Camino del inca sierra sur, partía desde Cusco uniendo los pueblos de Juliaca y Chucuito en Perú, Chuqiaqo en Bolivia, puente del inca y Mendoza en Argentina.
On June 21, 2014 during the 38th meeting of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in Doha, the Inca Trail was inscribed as a Unesco World Heritage Site, receiving international recognition of the great engineering masterpiece, thanks to its Universal value that favors its preservation, conservation, protection, revaluation together with its people, ancestral traditions and values.
All this was thanks to the support of countries such as Ecuador, Colombia, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina and Peru who supported the cause.
The Inca Trail in Machupicchu.
Throughout the year thousands of tourists from different parts of the world undertake the Inca Trail hike from Cusco, to undertake a hike that leads to Machupicchu, along the Inca Trail you will find different archaeological sites that have a domain of the entire valley that comprises the archaeological park of Machupicchu.
The Inca Trail starts at Qoriwayrachina at kilometer 82 of the Cusco-Machupicchu railway in a 4-day journey through high Andean slopes, climates and varied exosystems where the highest trail passes at Warmiwañuska which is located at over 4200 meters above sea level and ends at the Gate of the Sun or Intipunku.
