25K views · 738 reactions | This Inka trail wasn't in the tourist brochure! | enduro21.com | Facebook

191K views · 3.9K reactions | Knots that counted an empire #Khipu #Inka #AndeanHistory | TerrifyingMyths | Facebook

Around 500 years ago, the Inka used millions of knots in colorful cords to create records known as khipu. Lacking traditional letters or symbols, the empire of 12 million people relied on this three-dimensional system to manage census data, accounting, and labor. Each knot's color, type, and position encoded specific data in a decimal format, functioning much like a physical spreadsheet. Today, some researchers believe that khipu might also contain phonetic information, hinting at the possibilit