Around 40,000 Inca nobles ruled an empire of 12 million conquered people throughout the Andes mountain range in South America. The Incas diverted rivers and used sophisticated irrigation systems ...

Inca farmers mastered high-altitude agriculture, cultivating some 70 different native crops and often stockpiling three to seven years' worth of food in vast storage complexes. Imperial officials ...

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. The wealth and sophistication of the ...

His purpose in doing this was two-fold. Emphasizing his heritage as a descendant of Túpac Amaru I established his legitimacy as a ruler of the Inca people and allowed him to be further accepted ...

after which the empire controlled some 12 million people. It was during this century of expansion that the Inca built Machu Picchu, the famed “lost city” perched on a mountaintop 50 miles from ...