Lesson Sixty-Eight

Inca Chasqui

Dear Readers,

This week, lace up your sandals—we’re hitting the trails of the Andes to explore one of the greatest communication systems of the ancient world: the Inca chasqui runner network. Long before postal codes or digital maps, the Inca Empire built a relay system so advanced that messages could travel hundreds of miles in just a day. It was swift, silent, and essential to holding together the largest empire in pre-Columbian America.

The Backbone of the Empire

The Inca Empire, known as Tawantinsuyu ("Land of the Four Quarters" in Quechua), stretched across modern-day Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. But with no written language, no wheeled transport, and terrain that challenged even the hardiest traveler, how did the Inca manage to govern such vast lands?

The answer was the chasquis, a network of elite runners trained to carry messages, goods, and even fresh fish across thousands of kilometers using a system of relay stations called tambos. Spaced every 6 to 9 kilometers along the empire’s Qhapaq Ñan (the Great Inca Road), these waystations allowed runners to hand off messages like batons, ensuring speed and accuracy.

Speed, Skill, and Memory

Each chasqui was young, fit, and rigorously trained. But their job required more than stamina. They often carried quipus, knotted strings used for keeping records and transmitting numerical data (these are so interesting they deserve their own lesson), or verbal messages memorized with exceptional precision. This oral relay system ensured the Sapa Inca (emperor) could be informed of events at the empire’s edges within days. Chasquis could cover as much as 240 kilometers (150 miles) in a single day through this system, an astonishing feat of coordination and endurance. This efficeincy enabled the Sapa Inca to have fresh coastal goods within a day if he so desired.

A Trail Through the Mountains

What made the system even more remarkable was its setting. The Andes are unforgiving, with altitudes topping 4,000 meters and paths carved into cliffsides. The roads were an engineering triumph: paved, maintained, and often equipped with suspension bridges spanning deep ravines.

At each tambo, a fresh runner awaited, having been alerted by the sound of a pututu, a conch horn that signalled the approach of his colleague. The handoff was swift, allowing the message to continue without pause, much like a human telegraph line

Echoes in the Landscape

Though the Spanish conquest would ultimately dismantle the chasqui system, its legacy endures. The very roads they ran on, many still walkable today, were so well built that the Spanish themselves later used them. The chasquis remind us that communication doesn't always rely on paper or electricity. Sometimes, it just takes a pair of legs, a mountain path, and a deep devotion to duty.

In a world of instant messaging, their story offers a humbling perspective on how far we’ve come, and how much can be achieved through ingenuity and endurance. So don't get mad at those who aren't responding quickly, perhaps they're just running to see you :).

Until next time, remember to embrace the lessons of history, but never get caught up in its cobwebs.

Warm regards,

Hugh