Hidden Inka Trail to Machupicchu

10/10/2023

Happy birthday Mr. John Howes

19/06/2020

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The Inca Trail is located in the heart of the Peruvian Andes, between Cuzco, Capital of the ancient Inca Empire, and the citadel of Machu Picchu. The alternation of mountains and valleys throughout the walk offers an incredible and highly diversified spectacle.

The Tahuantinsuyo road network (in Quechua, Qhapaq Ñan or Inka naani) was a system of roads of enormous distances in the Inca civilization that linked the important cities of the coast and the mountains. It was structured based on two longitudinal axes: the cordillerano sector and the coastal plain sector. This Inca system was the ancient legacy of pre-Inca cultures, promoted during the Inca state. In the Quechua language, Qhapaq Ñan means: the king's or the powerful's path1 or the Inca's path, both for the totality of this organization of routes, which exceeded 30,000 kilometers, 2 and for the main path (approximately 5200 km of length). All these roads were connected to Cusco, the capital of the Tahuantinsuyo or Inca Empire, facilitated their communication with the different peoples annexed within the framework of the Inca expansionary process and, at the same time, constituted an effective means of political-administrative, social- economic and cultural. Since the Qhapaq Ñan interconnected towns as distant as Quito, Cusco and Tucumán, the Spanish conquerors used it during the 16th century to invade Peru, Bolivia, Chile and the Argentinean mountain range pampas.

The famous "Inca Trail", which links the city of Cusco with the historic sanctuary of Machu Picchu, is only a minimal and intra-regional part of the gigantic network of Qhapaq Ñan.