9. Incan Roads and Tambos

A magnificent and extensive road system enabled the central government at Cuzco to communicate with all parts of the far-flung Inca Empire and to dispatch large military forces rapidly to distant trouble spots. Two roads linked the Inca realm from north to south—one passing through the mountains, the other running along the coast. Scholars have estimated the combined length of those trunk routes at 16,000 km (almost 10,000 miles). The combined length of the entire network of all Inca roads, including lesser thoroughfares as well as the major trunk routes, may have amounted to 40,000 km (almost 25,000 miles). 

Inca roads were among the best ever constructed before modern times. During the early sixteenth century, Spanish conquerors marveled at the roads-paved with stone, shaded by trees and wide enough to accommodate eight horsemen riding abreast. Along these roads, more than 10,000 waystations (see ruins, right), or tambos, were placed about a day’s walk apart to serve as inns, storehouses, and supply centers for Inca armies on the move. A corps of official runners carried messages along the roads so that news and information could travel between Cuzco and the most distant parts of the empire within a few days. When the Inca rulers desired a meal of fresh fish, they dispatched runners from Cuzco to the coast, more than 320 kilometers (200 miles) away, and had their catch within two days. Like roads in empires in other parts of the world, the Incas’ roads were built through political centralization as a means to centralize their state.  A labor tax called the mita was placed on communities where ayllu family group would take turns providing the labor necessary to create the road system. The Incan roads even facilitated the spread of the Quechua language and their religious cult focusing on the sun both of which became established throughout their empire.