Qhapaq Ñan, the Grand Inca road - a precolumbian road system in the South America...

Little known before the Beatles,  the international tourism has discovered it in a form of the “Inca Trail”, a small section of the road leading to Macchu Picchu from the 88 km stop from Cuzco. It  has been gradually given much more attention outside and in the neighboring countries when in 2001 Peru  proposed the international project of research and conservation of this system of approximately 40,000 km of roads and paths. It is so extensive that only the Silk Road of Asia could be compared to its size.

Peru along with Chile,  Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Colombia have decided to work together to register the Inca Road or Qhapaq Ñan (in Quechua language means "Main road") as the UNESCOWorld Heritage site. It is the first Andean road system which was being given much attention by the archeological and historian communities since the beginning of the 20th century (Regal, Niemeyer, Rostworowski, Rowe, Hyslop, Zuidema, Nunez).

The commitment to continue funding a joint study and apply for the UNESCO status has been signed in December 2010 in Buenos Aires by the six countries’ presidents. The UNESCO World Heritage Centre (February 2011) was updated by the heads of the countries' committees on the progress of the project to be declared as the World Heritage Site. Chile demonstrated its preparedness, and in December 2011 has begun the process of the State funding for the project. It will be one of the first Cultural Itinerary and integration projecs of this kind in the World. The declaration is expected to be completed in 2014.

          Map of Qhapaq Nan entre Lima and Callao

                                                       from the Alberto Regal´s article in the 1954´s El Comercio, Peru.