Inca road system

The Inca road system (El Camino Inca) of Peru was the most extensive among the many roads and trails that were constructed in pre-Columbian South America.

It went across the Andes mountains and reached heights of over 5,000 m (16,500 feet) above sea level. The Inca road system covered approximately 22,500 kilometres (14,000 mi) and provided access to over three million km² of territory.

Because the Incas did not make use of the wheel for transportation, and did not have horses until the arrival of the Spanish in Peru in the 16th century, the trails were used almost exclusively by people walking, sometimes accompanied by pack animals, usually the llama.

The trails were used by the Inca people as a means of relaying messages, carried via knotted-cord quipu and by memory; and for transporting goods. Messages could be carried by runners covering as much as 240 km (150 mi) per day, working in relay fashion much like the Pony Express of the 1860s in North America.

There were approximately 2,000 inns, or tambos, placed at even intervals along the trails. The inns provided food, shelter and military supplies to the tens of thousands who traveled the roads.