Qhapaq Ñan The grand Road of the Incas6000 km across the Andes

Qhapaq Ñan, The Grand Route of the Andes.

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El-Ángel
Laguna Mojanda
Quito
Cuenca
Cajamarca
Cusco
Lac Titicaca
Désert d’Atacama
Salar d’Uyuni
Canyons de Tupiza

Walked in its entirety for the first time

During the height of the Inca Empire, it covered a vast region stretching from the south of Columbia to central Argentina and Chile, and including the countries of Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.

The Qhapaq Ñan – “Main Andean Road” – constituted the principal north-south highway which allowed for the political and economic control of the Inca Empire. An expertly crafted column that stretched more than 6000 kilometers long, and which can be compared to the ancient Silk Road of the East.

This highly valuable archeological patrimony still exists at present, yet it is on the threshold of vanishing.

It is due to this emergency that we decided to depart on foot in search of this extraordinary road that is on the verge of disappearing. Our expedition aims to bring this « sleeping giant » for the first time to the public’s eye, and to bring to light the various related issues at stake.

The famous “Inca Trail”, that links the Sacred Valley of Cusco with Machu Picchu, is but a miniscule tangential portion off the gigantic network of Inca roads…

 

The Authors

Laurent Granier, Megan Son

After having met in Seoul 4 years ago, we decided to travel together to discover the American continent. Megan is Korean-American, Laurent is French. With our good friend Philippe Lansac, we embarked on a journey across Alaska with horses in the footsteps of the pioneers on ancient gold routes, and then continued in canoe, on foot and with horses in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark on the first expedition west of the Mississippi. We recommenced alone on a fabulous circuit of the Maya World, before coming across a book written by Ricardo Espinosa which displayed this epic route of the Andes…

www.studionomade.com

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