Create an elevation profile

The Inca Empire was a civilization established in South America in modern-day Peru and Chile. To enable communication, trade, and military control of this vast empire, the Inca established the Andean Road System, Qhapaq Ñan. Stretching more than 30,000 kilometers (about 18,641 miles), the network of roads, stairs, and waystations was based on four main routes originating in the Incan capital city of Cusco. Today, 273 sites associated with the Qhapaq Ñan, spread over 6,000 kilometers (about 3,728 miles), are preserved as World Heritage Sites. In this tutorial, you’ll use the elevation profile tool to understand how this famous road network of paths, stairways, and waystations connected the Incan Empire throughout the Andes Mountains.

In this tutorial you will learn to:

• Add an elevation profile to a 3D map
• Use points to create an elevation profile
• Edit nodes along a line
• Change between Metric and Imperial units

This tutorial was last tested on September 25, 2024.

Requirements

Create an elevation profile

You'll use the Elevation Profile tool in MapMaker to determine the elevation of the mountains some of these roads crossed.

1. Open MapMaker.
2. On the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, click Open map.

   

3. In the Open map window, in the search bar, type World Heritage Sites.

   

4. On the map card for the World Heritage Sites map, click the Information button.

   

5. Read the map description. Once you've read the description, click the map card to open the map.

   The World Heritage Sites map opens.

6. In the upper left corner, click the Open search button. In the search bar, type Cusco, Peru and click Search.

   

   The map zooms to Cusco, Peru. Cusco was the capital of the second Incan empire. Originally, four roads of the Qhapaq Ñan left the capital. You'll create an elevation profile showing the distance and elevation between a segment of the road connecting Cusco with the town of Lares.

7. Close the Search result pop-up.
8. On the map, zoom closer to Cusco and click the point in the hills north of the city.

   

9. Read the pop-up to read information about the Qhapaq Ñan.
10. Close the pop-up. Zoom out and pan the map north toward the town of Lares.

    

    There are four more sites around Lares.

11. On the ribbon, click the Measure button and choose Elevation Profile.

    

    The Elevation Profile tool opens at the bottom of the screen. It's currently blank. To make an elevation profile, you'll place at least two points on the map.

12. On the map, click the Qhapaq Ñan site point north of Cusco.

    

    As you move the cursor, a line is attached to the point and a rough elevation profile is shown in the tool.

13. On the map, click the Qhapaq Ñan site point south of Lares. Add a point for the remaining three Qhapaq Ñan sites, double-clicking the last site to stop drawing the line.

    

    The Elevation Profile tool shows both the distance and the change in elevation across the line.

14. In the Elevation Profile pane, move your cursor across the chart to see the corresponding location on the map.
15. In the upper right corner of the Elevation Profile pane, click the settings button. For Units, click Metric and choose Miles.

    

    The chart updates to show the distance and elevation in miles.

Edit an elevation profile

The elevation profile you've drawn is a series of four straight lines connecting Qhapaq Ñan sites. Historically, the route wove through valleys and around mountains and other natural obstacles. To make the profile a bit more realistic, you'll edit it to follow the Urubamba Valley north to the town of Ollanytaytambo and follow the CU-106 road northeast to the town of Patacancha before connecting the sites near Lares.

1. On the map, click the blue line.

   Once the line is selected, the points you placed on the map, or nodes, turn orange. This means you can edit them.

2. On the map, point to the line between Cusco and the point south of Lares.

   

   The cursor has a small plus next to it. This means that you can add another point, or node, to the line.

3. Click the line to add a new orange node. Drag the new node west to Ollanytaytambo.

   

4. Repeat the process to add new nodes to the line following the road CU-106 up the valley to the town of Patacancha.

   

   How does these additions change the elevation profile?

In this tutorial, you learned how to create and edit an elevation profile to measure distance and elevation.

You can find more tutorials in the tutorial gallery.