Apu - Officials in charge of a suyu or section of the Inca Empire. 

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Aqueducts: Canals made out of rock, stone, and mud to carry water from its source throughout the empire for terrace farming, public use, and storage.

 

Ayllu - A small community of people or families. Land was given to an ayllu based on the number of people in the group.

 

Chaski - A relay runner on the Inca road who carried messages throughout the empire mostly for the emperor.

 

Chimu - Ancestors of the Inca from 900 AD.

 

Conquistador - A Spanish military leader and explorer. 

 

Cuzco - The capital of the Inca Empire.

 

Huaca - A sacred object to the Inca.

 

Huayna Capac - The eleventh emperor of the Inca, it was under his leadership that the Inca Empire reached its peak. He died from smallpox about the time the Spanish arrived.

 

Inca - The people descended from the original founders of Cuzco.

 

Inti - The Sun god for the Inca.

 

Manco Capac - The first Sapa Inca, Manco Capac founded the Kingdom of Cuzco.

 

Machu Picchu - The "lost city" of the Inca that was never discovered and destroyed by the Spanish.

 

Mit'a - A tax each male of the Inca Empire paid by doing labor. This included being as a warrior in the army and building temples or other buildings.

 

Pachacuti - The emperor that started the expansion of the Kingdom of Cuzco into the  largest empire of South America.

 

Peru - The modern country where Cuzco and the center of the Inca Empire was located.

 

Pizarro - Francisco Pizarro was the Spanish conquistador who conquered the Inca.

 

Quechua - The language spoken by the Inca.

 

Quipu - A series of strings that recorded numbers and codes by using various sizes of knots.

 

Sapa Inca - The leader and emperor of the Inca Empire.

 

Suyu - Sections of the Empire. The empire was divided up into four suyu. At the center was Cuzco.

 

Vilcabamba -The last refuge of the Inca Empire. When it fell to the Spanish in 1572, the Inca Empire was gone forever.

 

Viracocha - The creator god of the Inca who made the Earth and was father to the Sun god Inti.