What was the name of the Inca courier system using runners?

The Inca courier system using runners was the chasqui service, and its individual messengers were called chasquis or chaskis. These highly trained runners carried oral messages, khipus, and small valuable packages across the empire.

Chasquis worked through relay stations known as chaskiwasi. A runner sprinted from one station to the next, where a fresh messenger took over without requiring the same person to cross the entire distance. This relay design allowed information to move rapidly across the Inca road network, including steep mountain routes and difficult valleys.

Messages could include royal orders, military news, administrative information, and numerical records encoded on khipus. The runners were not necessarily the specialists who interpreted those knotted cords; khipukamayuq officials handled the more technical work of reading and maintaining khipu records.

Aclla referred to selected women associated with state institutions, and mitma described resettled populations. Quipucamayoc was the title of a khipu specialist, not the name of the running courier system. The broader road network was called the Qhapaq Ñan.