Pachacuti

Ninth Sapa Inca and the figure who turned a Cuzco kingdom into an empire. His unexpected defense of Cuzco against the Chanca confederation in 1438 — undertaken after his father and elder brother had fled — gave him the throne. Over the next thirty years he reorganized the state into the four-quarter system of Tawantinsuyu, rebuilt Cuzco in monumental masonry, established the mit'a labor draft, and probably ordered the construction of Machu Picchu.