On the edge of Western South America, wedged between the Earth’s driest desert, largest rainforest, and second highest mountain range lay a sprawling empire. The Inca through ingenious engineering and strict central planning forged one of the world’s most unusual empires. The largest empire in the pre-Columbian Americas, without a written language, the wheel, or money and one of the only empires to stretch upwards rather than across. In this video, we will look at how the Inca rose to power from unknown origins and dominated their region.