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60 free Inca Empire trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Inca Empire trivia quiz covers the largest state in pre-Columbian America, an empire that ran from Ecuador to Chile without money, wheels, iron or writing. The easy questions cover the capital, the mountain citadel found by Hiram Bingham, the language, the sun god and the conquistador who toppled it. From there the quiz moves through the story: the origin legends of Manco Capac, Pachacuti's turn of the world, the four suyus, Tupac Yupanqui's conquest of Chimor, the smallpox that killed Huayna Capac, the civil war between Huascar and Atahualpa, Cajamarca and the ransom room, and the Neo-Inca state that held out in Vilcabamba until 1572. The hard end covers quipu, the chasqui runners and their coca, mit'a labour, the decimal administration, the three moral precepts, trepanation survival rates, mortarless stonework, chuno and freeze-dried potatoes, capacocha sacrifice, the Council of the Realm, high-altitude physiology and the Portuguese castaway who reached the empire before Pizarro. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on the Inca Empire, Machu Picchu and the Inca road system before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. Our Aztec, Maya and ancient civilizations quizzes are natural next stops.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What was the capital of the Inca Empire?
Cusco
The four provinces of the empire met at the city, which the Incas saw as its navel.
Q 02What did the Incas call their empire, a name meaning 'realm of the four parts'?
Tawantinsuyu
The four suyus were Chinchaysuyu, Antisuyu, Qullasuyu and Kuntisuyu.
Q 03What was the official language of the Inca Empire?
Quechua
It was a lingua franca rather than the Incas' own tongue, which was probably related to Puquina.
Q 04Which of these did the Incas build their empire WITHOUT, according to anthropologist Gordon McEwan?
The wheel, iron and writing
They also had no draft animals; llamas carried packs but nothing pulled a plough or a cart.
Q 05What is the name of the knotted-string device the Incas used for record keeping?
Quipu
They kept excellent census records on them, but the knowledge of how to read them was lost.
Q 06How did ordinary Incas pay 'taxes' to the empire?
With labour
The economy ran largely without money or markets, on reciprocity; the state fed workers at feasts in return.
Q 07What was the name of the Inca sun god whose worship the rulers promoted above all others?
Inti
The emperor was considered the 'son of the Sun'.
Q 08What title, meaning roughly 'the only lord', did the emperor hold?
Sapa Inca
He wore the maskaypacha fringe as his symbol of power; the Willaq Umu was the high priest of the Sun.
Q 09According to legend, the founding couple Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo emerged from which body of water?
Lake Titicaca
They carried a golden staff and settled where it sank into the ground, founding the capital.
Q 10Which mestizo chronicler recorded the Manco Capac legend in The Royal Commentaries of the Incas?
Inca Garcilaso de la Vega
He was the son of a Spanish conquistador and an Inca noblewoman.
Q 11Which ruler began the Inca expansion in 1438 and reorganised the empire into four parts?
Pachacuti
His name means 'the turn of the world', given after he defeated the Chanka.
Q 12What was the most important conquest of Tupac Inca Yupanqui?
The Kingdom of Chimor
Chimor, centred on Chan Chan, had been the Incas' only serious rival for the coast.
Q 13Which people traditionally halted the Inca advance south at the Maule River?
The Mapuche
The same people later strategically defeated Spanish colonisation in southern Chile.
Q 21In which year was the last Inca stronghold conquered and its ruler Tupac Amaru executed?
1572
Later rebels such as Tupac Amaru II invoked his name into the late 18th century.
Q 22Which mountain citadel was likely built around 1450 as an estate for the emperor who began the expansion?
Machu Picchu
Radiocarbon dating puts its occupation between about 1420 and 1530.
Q 23Which American historian brought the 'Lost City of the Incas' to international attention in 1911?
Hiram Bingham
Peruvian explorer Agustin Lizarraga had reached it earlier, and locals always knew of it.
Q 14Which Portuguese castaway was the first European to reach the Inca Empire, in 1524?
Aleixo Garcia
He arrived from the east on a raiding expedition with a Guarani army, years before Pizarro.
Q 15Which two sons of Huayna Capac fought the civil war that weakened the empire before the Spanish arrived?
Huascar and Atahualpa
Huascar was assassinated while his brother was a Spanish prisoner, a charge later used against the captive.
Q 16How many men did Pizarro's force number when it captured the Inca at Cajamarca?
168
They had 27 horses and one cannon against an Inca army of some 80,000 carrying mostly hunting tools.
Q 17What did Atahualpa offer the Spaniards in exchange for his freedom?
A room of gold plus twice that in silver
The ransom was paid, but Pizarro refused to release him and had him executed in August 1533.
Q 18What did Atahualpa offer Pizarro's party at their first meeting, which the Spaniards rejected?
Ceremonial chicha in a golden cup
Friar Vincente de Valverde then read the Requerimiento demanding submission to Charles I and conversion.
Q 19Which Spanish conquistador led the conquest of the Inca Empire?
Francisco Pizarro
He received royal approval in July 1529 to conquer the region, which Spain called New Castile.
Q 20To which mountain refuge did Manco Inca retreat to found the Neo-Inca State?
Vilcabamba
He and his successors ruled there for another 36 years.
Q 24At roughly what altitude does the citadel known as the 'Lost City of the Incas' sit?
2,430 metres
It stands on a ridge above the Urubamba River about 80 km north-west of the capital.
Q 25What is the indigenous name of the Inca road network, meaning 'royal road'?
Qhapaq Nan
It has been compared with the Roman road system built a thousand years earlier.
Q 26Roughly how long was the Inca road system in total?
40,000 km
It rested on two north-south trunk roads, one along the coast and one through the mountains.
Q 27What were the relay runners who carried messages along the Inca roads called?
Chasquis
They chewed coca leaves for extra energy between relay stations.
Q 28What were the way-stations spaced about a day's walk apart along Inca roads called?
Tambos
Qullqas were the storage silos; huacas were sacred places.
Q 29What was the staple food of the Inca Empire, grown in thousands of varieties?
The potato
Maize and coca, by contrast, were treated as sacred plants.
Q 30What is chuno, the storable food some scholars link to the rise of the Inca state?
Freeze-dried potato
It is made by drying potatoes in the freezing night temperatures of the southern highlands.