Inca Empire: Did you mean...?

A detail from an Inca textile showing a geometric cross design. (Museo de America, Madrid)

An Inca mountain road with bridge, approaching Machu Picchu.

An Inca ceramic dish with a handle in the form of a bird. Peru, 1476-1534 CE. (St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri)

Sculpture of Inca General Ruminahui (1490-1535 CE) in Quito, Ecuador.

The staggering quantity of gold the conquistadors extracted from the Americas allowed Spain to become the richest country in the world. The thirst for gold to pay for armies and gain personal enrichment resulted in waves of expeditions of...

An 1846 painting by John Everett Millais titled "Pizarro Seizing the Inca of Peru". The scene shows the conquistador Francisco Pizarro (c. 1478-1541) capturing the Inca ruler Atahualpa at the battle of Cajamarca in 1533. (Victoria and Albert...

Civilization (from the Latin civis=citizen and civitas=city) is a term applied to any society which has developed a writing system, government, production of surplus food, division of labor, and urbanization. The term is difficult to define...

An Inca circular terracing used to increase agricultural yield. Moray, Peru, 15-16th century CE.

Typical imperial Inca trapezoid windows from the sacred precinct of Coricancha, Cuzco, c. 1438 CE.

A colonial-era illustration depicting Inca farmers using traditional tools such as the foot plough. By the native chronicler Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, c. 1613 CE.