The main resources available to the Inca Empire were agricultural land and labor, mines (producing precious and prestigious metals such as gold, silver or copper), and fresh water, abundant everywhere except along the desert coast.

What did the Inca do with their natural resources?

The Incas were ambitious farmers, and to maximise agricultural production, they transformed the landscape with terracing, canals, and irrigation networks, whilst wetlands were often drained to make them suitable for farming.

How did the Inca get their resources?

Yet the Incas, and the civilizations before them, coaxed harvests from the Andes’ sharp slopes and intermittent waterways. They developed resilient breeds of crops such as potatoes, quinoa and corn. They built cisterns and irrigation canals that snaked and angled down and around the mountains.

What were 3 things that Inca were most known for?

The Inca began as a small tribe who steadily grew in power to conquer other peoples all down the coast from Columbia to Argentina. They are remembered for their contributions to religion, architecture, and their famous network of roads through the region.

What did the Incas farm?

INCA CROPS



The three principal crops that the Inca’s lived on were quinoa, potatoes and corn, although they used many other plants for medicinal purposes.

What material was most precious to the Inca?

For the Incas, textiles were the world’s most precious items, more valuable than gold or silver. Because of their great value, textiles were frequently used as offerings to the golds and the ancestors.

What was valuable to the Incas?

Following the religious belief in the Pachamama (Mother Earth), for the Incas the most important asset was nature, for it was the provider of everything, from food to benign weather; the Inca economy made sure that the most basic need of humankind, that is, food for survival, was guaranteed to everyone.

Where did the Incas get their water from?

The impressive aqueduct system of the Incan empire functioned to irrigate agricultural terraces and bring fresh drinking water into the cities. The aqueducts, often build on the sides of mountains, collected water from the mountains for distribution elsewhere. The same aqueducts are still used extensively today.

Did the Incas have coins?

More Information, Travel To Peru. Knowing that the Incas did not have coins to make transactions, or they didn’t know the wheel or had well-affirmed paths like the Romans, or that most of them were vegetarian are some interesting facts about the Incas that only a few of us know, but no more.

What was the water source for the Inca Empire?

The water came mostly from nearby rivers but was also brought down from freshwater springs on mountains.

What are 10 facts about Inca?

Fascinating facts you should know about the Incas

• The Inca Empire only lasted for about one century.
• The Incas didn’t have a written alphabet, but they had khipu.
• The Incas domesticated very few animals – llamas, alpacas, ducks, and guinea pigs.
• The Incas were mostly vegan.

How did the Incas do brain surgery?

While methods of trepanation varied over time, Inca surgeons eventually settled on a scraping technique to penetrate the skull without causing wider injury. “The skull was slowly scraped away, resulting in a circular hole surrounded by a wider area of scraped bone,” Andrushko said.

Did the Incas invent anything?

Some of their most impressive inventions were roads and bridges, including suspension bridges, which use thick cables to hold up the walkway. Their communication system was called quipu, a system of strings and knots that recorded information.

How did the Incas use their environment?

The Incas utilized their mountainous surrounding to maximize the efficiency of their agriculture and irrigation systems. These advances boosted agriculture not only for the Incan civilization, but the Sacred Valley of the Incas continues to be Peru’s most productive region.

How did the Incas take care of the environment?

However, the Incas found a way around these problems, with terrace agriculture. By cutting flat planes into the mountain, the Incas were able to create areas of suitable farmland. Bounded by stone walls, these areas are able to withstand the problems associated with Mountain climates.

How did the environment impact the Incas?

The higher temperatures, starting around 1150, ended thousands of years of cold aridity, and enabled Incan farmers to build mountainside terraces for growing crops at altitudes previously too cold to support agriculture.

Did the Inca rely on agriculture?

The Incan civilization was predominantly agricultural. The Incas had to overcome the adversities of the Andean terrain and weather.

What was the Inca water source?

The water came mostly from nearby rivers but was also brought down from freshwater springs on mountains.

What was the Incas most important crop?

Potatoes were the most important ingredient in Inca diet and their main source of nourishment. The potato is one of Peru’s native crops and was domesticated more than 8000 years ago by pre-Inca cultures.