• Dates of predominance
• Name variations and pronunciation
• Location
• Important sites
• History
• For More Information

While many people have never heard of the early cultures of the Andean region, like the Chavín (pronounced chah-VEEN), Moche (pronounced MO-chay), Tiwanaku (tee-wah-NAH-coo), Wari (wah-REE), and Chimú (chee-MOO), that existed before the Inca (ING-kuh) empire, most people know something about the Incas. That is at least partly because when the Spanish arrived in South America in the early 1530s, they found one wealthy and powerful empire, rather than many small states descending from the earlier cultures. (An empire is a vast, complex political unit extending across political boundaries...