Qhapaq Ñan, The great path of the Andes

The exhibition, curated by the IILA (Italian-Latin American International Organization), focuses on the Qhapaq Ñan, the Andean road system built by the Incas on the basis of ancient pre-Inca routes, whose ramifications touch six countries in South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, for a total of about 30,000 kilometers.

It was a road that united the Empire of the Incas, connecting a vast territory of 5 million km2, a path that, passing through the peaks of the Andes, between arid deserts and rainforests, reached the coasts. Through this long path, comparable to the great consular roads of the Roman Empire or the Silk Road, not only goods, but also and above all ideas circulated, thanks to its function as a crossroads of civilization and cultural exchange.

The exhibition allows you to discover and admire a series of archaeological finds from the MUCIV - Museum of Civilizations, the Luigi Pigorini prehistoric-ethnographic collection, coming from the areas of Qhapaq Ñan and belonging to different pre-Columbian eras: these are mainly ritual objects that were part of of the grave goods of the Andean burials, evidence of the contacts between civilizations, from the pre-Inca to the Incas.

Together with these objects are exhibited the works of six contemporary visual artists from the area of ​​ancient Qhapaq Ñan: Gracia Cutuli (Argentina), Joaquín Sánchez (Bolivia), Cecilia Vicuña (Chile), Gabriel Vanegas (Colombia), Estefanía Peñafiel Loaiza ( Ecuador), Mariano León (Peru).

Photo credits: Courtesy of Qhapaq Ñan-IILA (Italian-Latin American International Organization) official site