The Incas in Chile

One often forgets it but the current territory of Chile was also and largely conquered by the Incas.

For more than 100 years and up to 200km south of Santiago, the Incas were attracted so far from their capital Cusco in Peru by Chile's mining riches such as gold and copper.

It is in the North however that one will notice there most their former presence. The most solidly colonized populations were the Aymaras (at the same time present in Chile, Bolivia and Peru) the Atacaméniens,

Chile was thus almost entirely crossed by the famous Inca Trail, although there are few traces of it unlike Peru for example. 

This road also called Qhapaq Ñan in Quechua is an immense road network of 6000 km of lanes crossing the whole empire, built in the 15th century by the Incas.

 Since always, the smoothness and the ingenuity of its construction arouses the admiration of the archaeologists and the travelers! When the Spanish conquistadors arrived on the South American lands, they even compared it to the network of ways of the Roman Empire!

Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile and Argentina, all of which are crossed by this road network, gathered to deposit a candidature and, since 2014, it is registered with the world heritage of UNESCO.