The Inca Wheel and Inca Road Network

Did the Incas have the wheel? Although the Incas were very advanced and did in fact know about the concept of the wheel, they never developed it in practice. This was quite simply because their empire spanned the world’s second highest mountain range, where there were more straightforward methods to carry goods than using the inca wheel.

The Inca Wheel

In it’s heyday – right at the time of the Spanish Conquest in the 1530’s – the Inca Empire stretched all the way from northern Argentina to Southern Colombia, an area defined chiefly by high peaks, narrow valleys and barren rocky terrain. Carrying goods was thus far more convenient by porters and on pack animals, such as llamas, who were well attuned to traversing tricky mountain slopes with heavy loads…. far easier than dragging a wagon up a mountain I’m sure you’ll agree!

The Ina Road Network

In order to make travel by foot easier, the Incas developed an extensive and complex system of roads for transportation and communications, which they called Khapaq Ñan. This covered the vast majority of their  Empire, the total length of road incorporated is thought to have been around 25,000 miles, the same as the Earth’s diameter. The most famous stretch of road is, of course, The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.

Exploring Peru on Foot

At Aracari, as locally-based specialists in luxury travel Peru, we encourage you to try out the time-honoured tradition of navigating the Andes by foot and take advantage of the many incredible Peru treks available, from day hikes, to multi-day lodge-to-lodge treks, to the famous Inca trail to Machu Picchu.

Map of the Inca Road System

This fantastic map of the Inca road system comes from Wikipedia:

Related Post

Aracari Featured on The WOW List At Aracari we love keeping you up-to-date on the latest happenings in our part of the world, but we also want to share something a bit more global. T...
Celebrating 28 Years of Aracari: Travel Deeper and Different Celebrating our 28th birthday last week brings with it talk of our journey so far and what’s in store for the future. After expanding our services ...
Horse Riding Sacred Valley A few months ago, while visiting Cusco, I had the opportunity to go horseback riding at Hacienda Huayoccari, a lovely, traditional hacienda owned by t...
Colca Canyon Churches Among the highlights of visiting the Colca Canyon in southern Peru are majestic condors, adventure activities like trekking, pre-Inca archaeology and ...
Le Soleil in Cusco: French cuisine makes its way to the Andes How could we not feature a meal at TripAdvisor’s currently #1 ranked restaurant in Cusco on our blog?  Let me take you through the meal that, although...
“Bird Watching” in Barranco: Las Pallas features Peruvian artisans’ av... Some of you may be familiar with one of our favorite hidden gems in Barranco: Las Pallas.  For those of you who are not, this is one stop you should a...