What can you learn from studying different maps of the Inca Empire? What geographical challenges did the Incas face? What geographical advantages did they have?

There are many things that we can learn from studying maps of the Inca Empire. Moreover, from these, we can see many of the advantages and disadvantages that the Inca had.

The Inca empire was located in a long strip north to south on the western side of South America. A challenge that the Inca faced was the rugged terrain of the area, including the Andes mountains, the coastline deserts and the jungle. This made travelling difficult. It also required great creativity when establishing settlements or farming.

An advantage of such a territory was the presence of minerals. Gold, silver, copper, tin, iron and emeralds are all common in the region, and were used by the Inca. Moreover, the difficulties in accessing the region made invasions unlikely. The jungles and deserts also acted as natural barriers protecting them from enemies.

With the maps of the Inca empire one learns that it was divided into 4 regions (4 of them) : chinchaysuyo, antisuyo, contisuyo and collasuyo. They were in Peru and part of the territory of Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. The Incas inhabited an untamed land, in the wild, suffered the inclemency of the climate and with a quite rugged and difficult territory, with very steep slopes and soils eroded by rain could practice agriculture. They used some narrow terraces on the coast that did not have water or irrigation channels to tend and dry some agricultural products. In the arid plateaus built food stores, taking advantage of the natural cold and dryness.