The Inca: mountain roads, terraces and the quipu

Grade 7 Social Studies Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

1. 1.

   The cell marked ? is blank. Noah's chart has a blank: how long was the Inca road system?

   • About 300 to 400 km along the main road
   • Exactly 40,000 km
   • About 30,000 to 40,000 km
   • A few km

2. Read this first

   Inca roads and runners

   Topic	What we know
   Length	about 30,000 to 40,000 km of roads (sources give different totals)
   Travel	people and goods moved without wheels or draft animals
   Chasquis	relay runners who took over at stations a few km apart (most chroniclers say about 2.5 km; others give 6 to 9 km); estimates of a day's travel range from up to 300 km to 360–480 km
   Tambos	roadside buildings with supplies and lodging

3. 2.

   How far apart were the chasqui stations, Pia asks?

   • About 300 to 480 km
   • About 25 to 90 km
   • About 2.5 to 9 km, by different accounts
   • About 30,000 km
4. 3.

   What did tambos hold, Ren asks?

   • Gold coins
   • Supplies and lodging
   • Wheeled carts
   • Relay runners' horses
5. 4.

   Zee reads that travel used no draft animals. What is a draft animal?

   • A wild animal
   • A bird that carries messages
   • An animal kept as a pet
   • An animal that pulls carts or plows
6. 5.

   Why does the chart give a range, 30,000 to 40,000 km, instead of one number, Ari asks?

   • The chart could not count
   • Sources give different totals
   • 40,000 is the exact length
   • The roads change length each day
7. 6.

   Suppose a message went 300 km each day. How far would it go in 100 days, and how does that compare with the road range, Bo asks?

   • 3,000 km: far below the range of the roads
   • 40,000 km exactly: the high end
   • 400 km: a short trip
   • 30,000 km: the low end of the range
8. 7.

   Suppose stations were 2.5 km apart. How many handoffs would a message have in 300 km, Esme asks?

   • About 12
   • About 302
   • About 750
   • About 120
9. 8.

   Is the road system longer than 25,000 km, Jun asks?

   • Yes, under either total
   • It can't be known
   • Just when the total is 40,000
   • No, under either total
10. 9.

    Why use relay runners instead of one runner, Kira asks?

    • Relays slowed the message
    • One runner is faster over a long distance
    • Runners rode wheeled carts
    • Fresh runners kept the message fast
11. 10.

    Why build tambos along the roads, Luz asks?

    • To stop people traveling
    • To mark the end of the roads
    • Travelers needed supplies and rest
    • To store wheels