Talk:Inca road system

Inca Trail
I suggest creating a separate article about the often-traveled tourist route to Macchu Picchu. If the idea is supported, I'll write it and research it and make sure it doesn't clash with the Macchu Picchu article.

Creationlaw 23:08, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

Eh, forget it, I just made a redirect and we're golden.

Creationlaw 23:12, 18 May 2007 (UTC)
 * I agree with your original proposition. The heavily touristed Inca Trail itself is an important concept, clearly distinguishable from Inca road systems in general. There should also be a section on the "alternatives to the Inca Trail" which are growing in popularity, including the Lares Trek, Salcantay Trek, maybe even the Jungle Trek (though it's more of a marketing concept than any well defined route), and arguably Choquequirao. Stevage 23:53, 2 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Do you think this should be pulled out as a separate article? It does constitute more than half of this article.  - DavidWBrooks 22:25, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Splitter or Lumper? Note the the first section of that section? has zero references. I don't think that this article is too long by any measure, and the "Classic Trail" IS part of the broader Incan Road system, and probably the best known. When others put as much effort into creating article sections about other sections of the Incan Road system, and the article becomes unmanageable, it would justify a spilt. Steve Pastor (talk) 04:40, 5 February 2009 (UTC)


 * I disagree. The Inca Trail part of this article should be split off, as the main thrust of the article is undermined by the fact that the Inca Trail part is larger than the rest of the article. I'm also looking at merging the Qhapaq Ñan article with this one, because this article and the Qhapaq Ñan article are about the same thing. There's no reason not to have a separate article for the Inca Trail; we can have a small paragraph about the Inca Trail, with a "More Info" link to the full article. Hires an editor (talk) 17:06, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Use of the Colon for punctuation
Regarding a recent edit Uses of the Colon This same url has a link to use of dashes. Listed uses do not include "introducing" a list.Steve Pastor (talk) 15:22, 10 September 2008 (UTC)
 * A colon is used to introduce a list. It can be a formal introduction using, as follows, or less formal.
 * The ceremony to honor Dr. Mills included everything: a moving introduction, a recitation of her achievements, a series of testimonials, and a stirring forecast of her future in the new position.
 * The questions were as follows: Where did you last work? For how long? What was your job title? What were your primary achievements?

environmental zones vs habitat
This is here because I fact checked one web source, which states that all of these zones are along the trail. I believe this book is more authoritative than that site.
 * Above the coastal plain lies the warmer yungas zone (300-2,300m). This is the zone in which coca is grown. The temperatue quechau band is at (3,100-3,500m). The suni zone is above this (up to 4,000m). Above this lies the puna (up to 5,000m), an alpine tundra that is the natural habitat for the Andean camelids. source is The Incas. by Terrence N. D'Altroy. Blackwell Publishers Inc. 2002. page 30, 31. ISBN 0-631-17677-2 Steve Pastor (talk) 19:47, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Merge Proposal
I just slapped an unreferenced tag on that article. Is that name quecha? (I'll check that spelling) There is little of note there that is referenced. I would not like to see unreferenced material added to this article (Inca Trail). On the other hand there may be some worthwhile info in the other article. Maybe a small paragraph worth? Its going to take some research to see what's salvagable. Then, it could be removed maybe with a redirect.Steve Pastor (talk) 22:34, 9 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Just had to hunt through the article to find the link to . It should be easlier to find. Searching for "Inca Trail" brings you to this article which most people would thing was about the best know portion of the trail. Added sentence and link to intro. Steve Pastor (talk) 19:56, 9 January 2010 (UTC)

Main Routes
I'm working on fixing the "Main Routes" section into 3 parts: a general part describing the system, then two subsections, one for the Qapac Nan, and the other for the other main route, which I don't know if it had a name, if it did what it was/is. Any assistance on this is appreciated. In the meantime, I'm reading as much as I can about this... Hires an editor (talk) 18:24, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Missing Information on Construction and Materials
There's not a word in the article about either construction or materials for the bulk of the road itself. It does talk about bridges and special circumstances but not surfaces or subsurfaces for the main road bed. This is important information when talking about any kind of road. Can anyone supply the missing section from other sources?

This information is from About.com: "Since wheeled vehicles were unknown to the Inca, the surfaces of the Inca Road were intended for foot traffic, accompanied by llamas as pack animals. Some of the roadways were paved with stone cobbles, but many others were natural dirt pathways between 1-4 meters in width." Other sources, including offline ones, are listed there. http://archaeology.about.com/od/iterms/qt/inca_road.htm

Halfelven (talk) 20:09, 3 February 2012 (UTC)


 * Good idea, but About.com is not a reliable source ... it's basically a wikipedia in which you can't fix somebody's error. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 20:35, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

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New edition of the InKa road system
The article has been mostly re-writen trying, nevertheless, to keep the original text when relevant. Some errors were fixed many new sections with proper references were added, some pictures also. I hope I have answered most of the requests expressed here above. Aga 15:44, 8 July 2019 (UTC)

Inca vs. Inka
The large rewrite that was just done has changed "Inca" to "Inka" is most cases, citing the current official preference of the region.

This is confusing to readers since the article title is "Inca". Either the change should be undone or the title should be changed.

Please discuss it here before taking action, however. Spelling issues like this seem minor but can be very difficult and contentious - see "Cusco" vs. "Cuzco" vs. "Qusqu" / "Qosqo". - DavidWBrooks (talk) 15:50, 8 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Addendum: For what it's worth "Inca" is common in wikipedia articles (e.g., Inca Empire, Sapa Inca). There's also Inca Kola, but that's a trademark name so it's different. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 20:03, 8 July 2019 (UTC)
 * FYI, the plaque on the statue of Sapa Inca uses the "Inca" spelling, as you can see if you blow up the photo in the article. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 20:14, 8 July 2019 (UTC)


 * The reason why I used Inka instead of the more common Inca depended on several factors. First I noticed that academic papers, although still mixed in the use of the term, tend to use Inka in recent times (say after 2005) while Inca is used in older papers.
 * In Peru (which I visited in 2017 and in 2018, after my first visit as a boy in 1970) the most accredited use is nowadays Inka because the Spanish spelling is being substituted for the Quechua spelling, nevertheless many references on signs, plaques and documentation for tourists, use either Inca or Inka; such is the case of the plaque on the Sapa Inca statue which is probably quite old.
 * And, last but not least, I had a strong support from the ongoing exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian whose title is The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire


 * If the Wikipedia decision will be to use Inca I have no problem in editing the article and change to Inca.
 * Aga 11:15, 16 July 2019 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Aga Khan (IT) (talk • contribs)

I have changed them back to Inca. all the other Inca articles in wikipedia use that spelling; consistency is important. There is no set spelling, no official spelling in English, so there's no reason to confuse readers by having different spellings of the same word in different articles. (See Cusco vs. Cusko for similar debate.) - DavidWBrooks (talk) 18:07, 12 September 2020 (UTC)

Bridges / baskets
Inca road system Can some expert describe the exact function and construction of those so called baskets? Peter Horn User talk 01:13, 13 May 2021 (UTC)