The Inca Empire was located in the Andes Mountains region of western South America. It extended from what is now southern Colombia in the north to much of modern-day Chile in the south. The empire was centered around the city of Cusco, which is in present-day southern Peru. The Inca ruled over a vast territory that included large parts of what are now Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile. The empire was based on the mountainous terrain of the Andes, with the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Amazon jungle to the east acting as natural boundaries. Cusco served as the administrative, political, and military capital of the empire during its height from the 15th to the early 16th century.