51 Fun Facts About Inca Empire

Which disease is thought to have swept through the Inca Empire even before the Spanish conquerors arrived?

Smallpox likely spread down from Central America ahead of the invaders, killing huge numbers of people and probably the emperor Huayna Capac and his chosen heir.

Which language did the Incas promote as the official tongue of their empire?

Quechua was carried by the Incas into areas such as Ecuador, where it is still widely spoken, and millions of people across the Andes speak it today.

What is the name of the knotted-string device the Incas used for record keeping?

Quipu cords kept census counts in their knots, but after the Spanish conquest many were sought out and destroyed as suspect records.

Which name did José Gabriel Condorcanqui take when he led a 1780 uprising against Spanish rule in Peru?

Túpac Amaru II was executed after the uprising failed, and two centuries later the rapper Tupac Shakur was named after him.

Which sun god did the Inca emperors claim as their divine ancestor?

Inti's worship was required of conquered peoples to back the Incas' claim to divine rule, though local gods were still tolerated.

Which conquistador helped capture the Inca emperor, then later led a Spanish expedition across the southeastern United States?

Hernando de Soto's share of the plunder made him one of the richest returning conquistadors, and he later died beside the Mississippi River.

In one legend, the founding couple Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo emerged from which body of water?

Lake Titicaca was their starting point in that telling, and they settled where their golden staff sank easily into the ground.

What did the Spanish do with many stones from the Inca fortress Sacsayhuamán?

The Spanish reused them in colonial buildings, dismantling much of the fortress within years of holding it against a large Inca siege.

What did the Incas usually do first when they wanted to absorb a neighbouring people?

The Incas sent them lavish gifts, and those who refused to submit faced military conquest.

What did the Incas do with the mummies of their dead emperors?

The Incas offered them food and consulted them on state affairs, bringing the mummies out in fine regalia for major ceremonies.

Which people traditionally halted the Inca advance south at the Maule River?

The Mapuche later beat back Spanish conquistadors in Chile as well, just as they had resisted the Inca armies.

Why was the captured Inca emperor strangled rather than burned at the stake?

He agreed to be baptised when friar Vicente de Valverde offered the gentler garrote in exchange for converting to Christianity.

Which two sons of Huayna Capac fought the civil war that weakened the empire before the Spanish arrived?

Huascar and Atahualpa fought until Atahualpa captured his half-brother and had his kin killed, shortly before the Spanish arrived.

What did the imprisoned Inca emperor promise his Spanish captors?

A room of gold plus twice that in silver was duly delivered, but his captors executed him anyway.

Which conquistador was Francisco Pizarro's partner in the conquest of Peru, before their rivalry turned deadly?

Diego de Almagro was executed on the orders of Pizarro's brother, and Almagro's supporters later broke into Pizarro's palace and killed him.

To which remote refuge did Manco Inca retreat to found the Neo-Inca State?

Vilcabamba became his base after he rebelled against the Spanish, who had first installed him as their puppet ruler.

Why did each new Inca emperor need to conquer fresh territory?

The dead ruler kept his lands for his own descendants, so a new king had to win territory and build his own palace.

Which American explorer brought Machu Picchu to international attention in 1911?

Hiram Bingham took thousands of its artifacts to Yale, starting a custody fight with Peru that lasted nearly a century.

What happened to Machu Picchu when Spain conquered the Incas?

The invaders never found it, though it lay only about 80 km from the Inca capital they seized.

What is the indigenous name of the Inca road network, meaning 'royal road'?

The Qhapaq Nan was built mainly to move soldiers, officials and llama caravans across the empire.

What did Inca road builders use to cross deep mountain gorges?

Rope suspension bridges woven from grass spanned the gorges, and villagers still reweave the Q'eswachaka bridge by hand every year.

What were the relay runners who carried messages along the Inca roads called?

Chasquis ran short stages and handed off to fresh runners at each post, so messages could travel about 240 km in a day.

What were the state-run way-stations along Inca roads called?

Tambos stocked food and supplies and lodged officials and marching armies as they moved along the roads.

What did the Incas consider silver to be?

The tears of the moon lined the moon goddess's shrine with silver, just as gold lined the sun god's temple.

What is chuño, the long-keeping food eaten in the Andes since Inca times?

Freeze-dried potato could be stored for years, and by 1590 it was traded in bulk to feed the silver miners of Potosí.

What was the name of the circular terraced site thought to be an Inca agricultural experiment station?

Moray's sunken rings of terraces grow warmer or cooler level by level, creating microclimates that may have been used to test crops.

Which art form did the Incas themselves prize most highly?

Woven textiles outranked even gold and silver, and fine cloth was handed out as payment and rewards and offered to the gods.

What did the conquistadors do with almost all the Inca gold and silver artworks they seized?

They melted them down and shipped the metal to Spain, so only a tiny fraction of Inca goldwork survives today.

What were the three moral precepts of Inca society?

Ama sua, ama llulla, ama quella were taught in the assemblies of the ayllu.

Which surgery did Inca healers perform with most patients surviving?

Cutting holes in the skull was survived by about 75 to 90 percent of Inca-era patients, depending on the study, against under half in the earliest Andean surgeries.

What is remarkable about the stonework of prime Inca buildings?

Blocks fit so tightly no knife can enter, and these mortarless walls have come through 500 years of earthquakes with remarkably little damage.

How did Inca nobles show their rank on their bodies?

Huge gold ear ornaments stretched their earlobes so far that the Spaniards nicknamed the nobles orejones, or 'big ears'.

What was the name of the Inca child-sacrifice ritual performed at events such as an emperor's death?

Capacocha children were chosen from towns across the empire and led on long pilgrimages to high mountain shrines to be sacrificed.

On what number system was the Inca provincial administration organised?

Decimal units grouped taxpayers in tens, hundreds and thousands, and each unit's head answered to the leader of the unit above.

Why did the Incas carry off the sacred idols of the peoples they conquered?

Probably to hold them as hostages, since a people was thought less likely to rebel while its own gods were in Inca hands.

What did Francisco Pizarro name the Spanish capital he founded on Peru's coast, now called Lima?

City of the Kings honoured the Magi, the three kings of the Bible story, because the city's founding was tied to the feast of the Epiphany.

Which two earlier Andean empires preceded the Incas and shaped many of their features?

Tiwanaku and Wari had both collapsed centuries earlier, but Tiwanaku's ruined monuments inspired Inca stone art and architecture.

What did the Incas do when a lunar eclipse darkened the moon?

People made as much noise as possible to save the moon, which in one telling was under attack from a beast that would plunge the world into darkness.

Which small animals did Inca-era families raise around their huts for meat?

Guinea pigs were also among the animals the Incas most often sacrificed to their gods, alongside llamas.

How did the Inca emperor travel on his tours of the empire?

Carried in a litter by nobles, he was captured only after the Spaniards cut down its bearers and toppled it.

How did Manco Inca, leader of the great Inca revolt, die?

Manco was killed by Spaniards he sheltered, fugitives from a rival Spanish faction, and his soldiers then killed them all.

What epithet, given to the ninth Sapa Inca after he defeated the Chancas, means 'the turn of the world'?

Pachacuti is widely thought to have had Machu Picchu built as a royal estate for himself.

What did the future conqueror of Peru use to dare his weary men to keep going?

A line in the sand, drawn with his sword, split Peru's riches from Panama's poverty, and only 13 men crossed it to join him.

What did an Inca emperor wear across his brow as the sign of royal power?

A red fringe hanging across the brow served as the Inca crown, and a new ruler took power by receiving it.

How did the Inca army besieging Spanish-held Cusco in 1536 set the city ablaze?

Red-hot stones from slings set the thatched roofs burning, yet the small Spanish garrison held out until reinforcements arrived.

What did the Incas do to keep a newly conquered province from rebelling?

Moved in loyal settlers, while rebellious villagers were often shipped off to long-loyal regions, which wore down resistance.

Whom did later Inca emperors take as their principal wife?

Their own sister became queen, a custom meant to keep the heir's bloodline purely descended from the Sun.

Who were the amautas in Inca society?

Teachers of the nobility's children, the amautas schooled the empire's future rulers in religion, history and government.

Which English food word comes from the official language of the Inca Empire?

Jerky began as charqui, meat Andean people cut in thin strips and dried so it would keep without spoiling.

What did ordinary Inca families owe the state as their tax?

Labour service, called mit'a, raised soldiers and kept the roads in repair, in an empire that ran largely without money or markets.

What office did the Willaq Umu, usually a brother of the emperor, hold?

Chief Priest of the Sun, he was probably the empire's second most powerful figure, leading the priests who tended the temple's gold and silver images.