The Inca created a vast and powerful South American empire in the high Andes Mountains that was finally conquered by Spain. Using Penn's impressive museum collections and other archaeological, linguistic, and historical sources, this course will examine Inca religion and worldview, architecture, sacred temples, the capital of Cuzco, ritual calendar, ceque system, textiles, metalworking, economic policies and expansionist politics from the dual perspectives of Inca rulers and their subjects. Our task is to explain the rise, dominance, and fall of the Incas as a major South American civilization.