Aztec Vs Inca

How would you your heart to be cut out as a sacrifice to ancient gods? Or to be a runner on a 18,000 mile road? These both could have happened in the ancient Aztec and Inca civilizations.The Aztecs lived from 1427-1514, on an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco in present day Mexico. Their capital city, Tenochtitlan, is present day Mexico City. The Incas lived from 1230-1525, in the Andes mountains, from present day Ecuador to Chile. Their capital city, Cuzco, is in present day Peru. The Aztec and Inca civilizations were both similar and different in the fields of agriculture, warfare, and religion.
In the area of agriculture, there were similarities and differences in the techniques, environment, and crops. The Aztecs and Incas both could
not farm in the environments they lived in with traditional farming methods. The Aztec’s swamp in the middle of lake Texcoco could not sustain corn or cotton. The Incas had a very diverse set of lands, but were primarily in the Andes mountains. The techniques used by both of the Latin American civilizations made the previously unusable land farmable. The Aztecs used chinampas, large, 300 feet long by 15 feet wide strips of man-made land. They were made with stakes and trees to hold packed mud and vegetation. They also formed canals (Across the Centuries). The Aztecs also had a dyke to protect the land from flooding. The Incas used terrace farming to farm in the mountain side. They would carve out the mountain into steps, and then bring soil from a lower elevation and pack it into the steps. They used irrigation channels to make sure their crops were watered (Early Ages). The practiced vertical economy, which was the growth of different crops based on the altitude they were grown at. They also grew similar plants in their respective farming methods. They both grew beans, corn, squash and chilies. Only the Aztecs grew tomatoes, but only the Incas grew cotton peanuts and potatoes. The different techniques that the Aztecs and Incas used caused similarities and differences in the study of agriculture. In the field of religious beliefs, gods and rituals the Incas and Aztecs had common themes, but differed slightly.
Both the Incas and Aztecs highly prized the Sun god, because in their world he controlled sunrise and therefore if the universe would continue. The Aztec Sun god was Huitzilopochtli. Aztecs believed that gods could be kind, but that demons and ghosts prowled in the night and could appear as skulls or miniature dolls (Strange Histories, The Aztecs). The Incas had many gods including Mama Pacha, Cocha, and Quilla, Mother Earth, Mother of Water, and Mother of Storms, respectively. The Sun god, Inti, was most important, but unlike in Aztec culture, they had a separate creator, Viracocha. Aztecs and Incas, however, differed more in rituals than they did in gods. The Aztecs would sacrifice humans, cutting out their hearts with an obsidian dagger, then sacrificing their blood to the gods, and finally throwing them down the steps of the temple (Doc. I). The Incas had other rituals, for example, when an emperor was killed, all of his servants would be killed too, so they could accompany him into the afterlife. They would also mummify deceased rulers. They had many levels of priests, including a High Priest, ten lower priests that counseled the ten religious districts, and then ordinary priests in towns. Finally, Incas had Acllas, young girls who are taken from their homes at early ages to serve in shrines and
temples.