Tawantin Suyu or Tahuantinsuyo is the name given by the INCA S to their empire in the 3 usually allowed transcriptions. The currency of the empire was: " ama sweated, ama quella, ama llulla" meaning " not to fly, not paresser, not mentir". The Wiphala or Huipala , flag rainbow with seven bands is regarded as being the symbol of the INCA empire; it is used today as symbol of national and cultural identification by the Andean people of indigenous origin.

Subdivisions

This empire was shared in four areas, supervised by a APU (governor) family member royal. With each one of these areas a standard with 49 squares was associated which was called the achank' macaw , a color and a height ( high or low ). There was thus…

… two high areas (" hanan"):

• the Chinchay Suyu located at the north and associated with the red color;
• the Qulla Suyu located at the south and associated with the white color;

… two low areas (" urin"):

• the Anti Suyu located at the east and associated with the green color;
• the Kunti Suyu located at the west and associated with the yellow color.

These suyus in their turn was divided into huamanis (administrative sub-units) which often corresponded to old kingdoms. In their turn, the huammanis were divided into saya , which themselves was divided into ayllus (families or fires).

The highway network

A network of roads, the Qhapaq Ñan (the " road of the seigneur"), started from Cusco and crossed all the empire. It included/understood nearly 40.000 km of way. All its length was hotel villages (the tambos or tanpu in quechua) where the travellers could rest, to nourish itself, etc At the end of the empire this system of capacñans and tambos will revélèra being a mortal trap for the empire, since they were used by Spanish as relay in their conquest of the country.

Beside the principal qhapaq ñan existed a whole network of minor roads, the runañan which connected the villages between them.