Which ocean bordered the Inca Empire to the west?

The Pacific Ocean bordered the Inca Empire to the west.

The Inca state occupied a long, narrow belt of western South America, with the Andes at its center and the Pacific coastline along its western edge. Its territory included most of modern Peru, where deserts, fertile river valleys, and high mountain regions meet the ocean. The empire also reached into parts of present-day Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and Colombia.

The Pacific was more than a boundary. Coastal peoples supplied fish, shellfish, salt, cotton, and agricultural produce, while river valleys supported intensive farming through irrigation. Inca administrators connected these lowlands with highland settlements using roads, storage facilities, and labor obligations.

The other choices are geographically misleading. The Atlantic lay east of the continent, beyond the Andes and interior lowlands; the Indian Ocean is far across Africa and Asia; and the Arctic Ocean is thousands of miles north. The empire’s western frontier was therefore the Pacific coast, even though Inca power was centered in the highlands.