The Inca Empire—the Empire of the Sun—flourished in the Andean highlands on the west coast of South America between 1438 and 1533, a brief but meteoric hundred years. Its population, which was between eight and sixteen million, included thriving hard-working farmers, highly skilled potters, weavers of fine textiles, craftsmen who worked in gold and silver, and builders of huge stone temples that stagger the imagination even today. Although their land was one of lofty mountains and high plateaus, deep gorges, scraped-out canyons, and turbulent rivers, the Inca built a highway through it that covered a distance of over two thousand miles. They also developed a system of relay runners, or chasquis, who could carry a message across the length of the Empire in five days.
With all her customary precision and vitality, Sonia Bleeker describes the achievements of the Inca and tells the history of their conquests and of their tragic destruction by the Spaniards. Patricia Boodell's illustrations are based on careful research and attractively complement this engrossing account of a truly remarkable civilization.
—from the dust jacket
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