What makes the Inca Empire so fascinating to archaeologists and
historians is that they specialized in achieving the impossible.
They conquered a huge empire without the use of wheeled vehicles
or horses to pull them. They had no system of writing but managed
somehow to maintain administrative control of far-flung provinces
thousands of miles from their capital. Without survey instruments, blueprints, photographs, and
machines for construction, they were still able to produce magnificent mountainside terraces,
highways, bridges, cities, towns, temples, and royal estates. Many of their projects were built in
seemingly impossible places, including sheer cliffs, steep mountain peaks, and raging rivers.
And they did this in a remarkably short time of less than 100 years.
Scholars see the Incas as a people who adopted a very successful, alternative approach to some
of civilization’s greatest challenges. They offer proof that engineering and social skills can be
independently developed in an isolated and challenging environment. Exciting new information
about the Incas appears every year as scholars publish their research.
