The Inca Trail, masterpiece of America, enters the World Heritage Site

The Inca Trail, a master road communication network that extended to six countries in South America, was declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco on Saturday, a distinction that recognizes the ingenuity of a pre-Hispanic system that surprised the world. The trails, which served the Inca to control its empire (Tahuantisuyo), extend from Argentina to Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, and were linked by a network of roads that constituted the Qhapaq Ñan (in Quechua Inca Trail).

 "This extraordinary system of roads extends through one of the geographical areas of the world with the greatest contrasts," among the Andres, the rainforest, the Pacific coasts and deserts, the Unesco statement said. "The denomination means for the six countries the recognition of one of the most important monuments of the Andean world," said Luis Lumbreras Flores, archaeologist of the Inca Trail Project of the Peruvian Ministry of Culture. The Qhapaq Ñan, the oldest road network in America, ran along the entire Tahuantinsuyo along the Andes Mountains, from western Argentina to southern Colombia. The main road has about 6000 km from south to north. This mountain road parallel to the Pacific Ocean was linked by cross sections that even reached the jungles and the Gran Chaco in Argentina and Bolivia. "There are other sections where the population still travels. It has cobbled areas, with flagstone or land fill, and in some places you can see retaining walls on both sides of the road," said Peruvian archaeologist Cristian Viscount. The distinction will allow to obtain financing from international organizations for the conservation and restoration of the paths and sanctuaries that were built around the road, archaeologists say optimistic. The entire network in coast, mountains and jungle, totaled an extension of 30,000 km, which interconnected the four of them, or cardinal points of the empire, with the mythical capital, Cusco (in Quechua, "navel" or "center").

Peru gathers most of the discovered routes of the old routes. The most famous stretch, and where millions of tourists from all over the world arrive, leave from Cusco to the citadel of Machu Picchu. They are 43 kilometers between forests, with ancient stone steps. The road reaches the Puerta del Sol where it offers majestic views of the Machu Picchu ruins.
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