In the 15th century AD the Inca Empire transformed the rugged Andes into vast, thriving farms on slopes steeper than basement stairs. They carved more than a million hectares of terraces into the mountains, creating ingenious steps with irrigation channels that carried glacial runoff and nurtured crops such as maize, quinoa, and many kinds of potato. Their monumental work built on the wisdom of earlier cultures and relied on dedicated labor, a legacy that endures in the terraces farmed even toda