For all the details of Inca history that are lost with the passing of time, one of the things that we still know for sure is that they were a people that knew how to make things happen. There are a number of things still around today that they innovated. From the time that they were a small nomadic tribe in the Cusco valley clear up until Spanish colonization, the Incas were brilliant inventors and were advanced for their time. Here are just a few things that the Inca developed.
Roads and Highways
It’s true that the Romans had already been the first to claim the title of inventors of the world’s roads. But the Incas were off in their own corner of the world and they didn’t know anything about the Romans.
Since the Incas were without the wheel, they found other ways of making long journeys easier either on foot or on the back of an alpaca while being loaded down with goods. The empire constructed an enormous 25,000 mile, or 40,000 km highway system that connected the entire empire. Much of this highway system is still around today. It contained all types of roads ranging from simple dirt tracks to paved highways.
An Information Network
The Incas are also noted for getting information across the empire very quickly. One of the ways they did this was through a remarkable communications network. They didn’t have the internet, but they did have a system by which they tried to relate information across long distances as quickly as possible.
The state employed citizens to camp out at positions at every mile along major roads and they essentially functioned as relay runners that passed messages between each other. The same system was also used for deliveries.
Historians estimate that the system could transmit information as fast as 150 miles per day. To put that in perspective, that meant that the emperor who resided in the eastern mountains could have fish caught in the Pacific Ocean delivered in less than 2 days. Not bad, not bad.
But running all day to deliver information and goods was exhausting. So there were rest houses built along these routes to provide shelter and store food. Those rest houses would have been quite the resource in a society without the wheel. Imagine carrying some nobleman or member of royalty long distances on your shoulders with raised platforms
An Accounting System
Despite not having a written language, the Inca certainly had an advanced accounting system. It was so unique, that historians are still having a time deciphering exactly how it functioned. It was a system that used thick rope with the number of llama or alpaca wool strings of different lengths and colors tied into knots. Nobody is yet for sure, but it’s believed that this method was used for keeping track of debts, supplies, stocks, and population numbers. We might even be looking at the earliest iteration of the decimal system.
Terraces
People who take a moment to visit Machu Picchu will remark at The terraces that are carved into the hillside. Seeing how the Inca empire was born in a mountainous region with little or no access to flat land, the Incas constructed terraces out of sections of the mountain into flat services they could farm on.
The system has several benefits. First, it allowed them to maximize the full potential of rainfall. It also reduced erosion. As a result, their key crops of potato and corn were very productive. We’re not for sure, but it’s believed that the terraces of Moray in the Cusco valley were meant to be something of an agricultural laboratory. Perhaps that’s where the Incas would see how certain crops would grow in different microclimates.
There are many things that the Incas have left behind that we don’t fully understand as of yet. But that doesn’t mean that they’re any less impressive to behold. You can arrange to come see these wonders for yourself and experience the mystery of wondering what the Incas were thinking. Arrange a trip with a licensed tour operator like TOUR IN PERU today.
