The Inca Empire, also known as the Incan Empire, is the largest empire in pre-Columbian America.
The administrative, political, and military center of the empire is located in Cusco in modern-day Peru.
The Inca civilization arises from the highlands of Peru sometime in the early thirteenth century, and the last Inca stronghold is conquered by the Spanish in 1572.
From 1438 to 1533, the Incas use a variety of methods, from conquest to peaceful assimilation, to incorporate a large portion of western South America, centered on the Andean mountain ranges, including, besides Peru, large parts of modern Ecuador, western and south central Bolivia, northwest Argentina, north and central Chile, and a small part of southern Colombia into a state comparable to the historical empires of Eurasia.
The official language of the empire is Quechua, although hundreds of local languages and dialects of Quechua are spoken.
Many local forms of worship persist in the empire, most of them concerning local sacred Huacas, but the Inca leadership encourages the worship of Inti—their sun god—and imposes its sovereignty above other cults such as that of Pachamama.
The Incas consider their king, the Sapa Inca, to be the "son of the sun."
