Thursday, 22 April 2010

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Capac Nan Road Capac Nan Road System of the Inca Empire. The Nan Capac (Quechua Qhapaq Nan, 'Main Road or "The Way of the Lord" or "Main Andean Road"') , Is the main axis of the road network of the Inca Empire. All the roads of the empire were linked with Cusco, the imperial capital, from which emerge a series of roads that connect the different peoples of the Inca Empire. During the Tawantinsuyo was a means of integration for the development of Andean culture in the political-administrative, socio-economic, social, cultural and environmental. The Capac Nan out of Cusco in four directions: north Chinchaysuyo, occupied by the Quechua, Chibcha Yungas and, to the southeast, Collasuyo occupied by Aymara and Colla, the Contisuyo, south-west, occupied by pukina, and Antisuyo eastward, occupied by the antis (existing native populations of the Amazon).The Capac Nan enabled the integration of these people through the exchange of different products, the transmission of cultural values, access to the various shrines Inca and the development of common practices. He was also a symbol of the Inca state power reflecting its expansion along the South American geography, reaching to cover current six Andean countries: Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador and Colombia, and uniting different regions making up the Tawantin Suyu . Qhapaq Nan was the main north-south road, which made possible the economic and political control of the Inca empire. With more than sixty thousand miles, that backbone was skillfully built by skilled hands and may be compared, because of its size, with the Silk Road or the Great Wall of China. The famous Inca Trail that links the sacred valley of Cuzco to Machu Picchu is only a very small and tangential to the giant network of Inca roads.