High in the Andes mountains, earth sheltered greehouses grow food for villages.

The Inca civilization began about 1200 AD and continued until the Spanish arrived in the mid 1500's. The land area controlled by the Incas covered about 1.5 million square kilometers. The population was from six to 15 million people. The Inca devoted much of their wealth to providing land for their people to become self sufficient in growing food. There are still many irrigation canals that were built to bring water to the agricultural areas. The Inca also built terraces to grow food.

Machu Picchu is an ancient Inca village that lies deep in the mountains. This is a view looking into the food terraces at Machu Picchu, and it shows the small amount of land required to grow food when the diet is vegetarian and based on a nutritious grain such as quinoa.