Inca

The last great pre-Columbian empire of the Andes, the Inca state (Tawantinsuyu) spread over nearly 4,000 km in a century, from southern Colombia to central Chile, before the Spanish conquest of 1533. Without writing or the wheel, it administered millions of subjects through the quipu (knotted cords), a 40,000 km road network and the mit'a corvée system.

Its signature is dry-stone masonry of extreme precision: polygonal or rectangular blocks fitted without mortar, seismic-resistant, still standing after five centuries of earthquakes. The Incas inherited and extended much older Andean traditions (Tiwanaku, Wari).