If you’ve ever crossed a suspension bridge, you’ve used Andean Indigenous technology. Open through June 27, “The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire” explores the foundations of the Inka Road in earlier Andean cultures, technologies that made building the road possible, the cosmology and political organization of the Inka world, and the legacy of the Inka Empire during the colonial period and in the present day.

This exhibition is also accompanied by the book, “The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire,” 232 pp; edited by Ramiro Matos Mendieta (Quechua) and José Barreiro (Taíno); NMAI, Smithsonian; copublished by NMAI and Smithsonian Books.