The Lost Inca Empire

"Land of the Four Quarters" or Tahuantinsuyu is the name the Inca gave to their empire. It stretched north to south some 2,500 miles along the high mountainous Andean range from Colombia to Chile and reached west to east from the dry coastal desert called Atacama to the steamy Amazonian rain forest. At the height of its existence the Inca Empire was the largest nation on Earth and remains the largest native state to have existed in the western hemisphere.

10 million subjects. Cuzco, which emerged as the richest city in the New World, was the center of Inca life, the home of its leaders

The Inca ruled an empire in the Andes and Pacific coast of South America, with a capital in Cuzco (Peru) in the 12th century, at which time their population was about 12,000,000. They left no written record of their civilization before the Spanish conquest. The Inca had an oral tradition, however, claiming the founder of the Inca dynasty to be Manco Capac. Mayta Capac was their 4th emperor under whom the Inca began to expand. To manage the new areas, the Incas employed forced resettlement of many of the conquered people and set up local governors responsible for gathering taxes. When the Spanish arrived in Peru in 1532, the leadership of the Inca was in turmoil, and so within three years, the invaders conquered the Inca.

The Inca were agricultural, using canals and irrigation, with a large network of roads and bridges, as well as a message delivery system. The Inca were tolerant of the religion of their conquered people. Their own religion had among other elements, a sun god, Inti, a creator god, Viracocha, and human sacrifice.

Bauer, Brian S.. The sacred landscape of the Inca: the Cusco ceque system

the Cusco ceque system, a ritual system composed of several hundred shrines in the heartland of the Inca.

city of Cusco, the capital of the Inca Empire in the fifteenth century

The state ceremonial calendar corresponded closely to the agricultural cycle of the highlands, with many rituals explicitly linked to crop productivity.

RELIGIOUS BELIEFS   Inka state religion has been characterized as more pragmatic than mystical, concerned more with food production and the curing of disease than spiritual salvation. The Inka recognized the existence of a supreme deity known as WIRAQOCHA, who was understood to be the creator of the world. The second most important deity in the Inka pantheon was INTI, the sun and father of the Inka sovereign. Other deities included ILLAPA (lightening), KILLA (moon), CHOQUE CHINCHAY (the constellation of Orion), and CHASQA KOYLLUR (Venus). The earth (PACHAMAMA), water (MAMACOCHA), and mountains (APUS) were also understood to possess supernatural qualities

The Inka ruler portrayed himself as the direct descendant of the sun. The first Inka, Manco Capac, was said to have emerged from a cave together with his three brothers and four sisters. The eight siblings set out in search of an appropriate site to settle. They eventually arrived in the valley of Cuzco, defeated the local population, and founded what would become the capital of the last indigenous empire