The western route followed the coastal plain not including in coastal deserts where it hugged the foothills.[6] More than twenty routes ran over the western mountains, while others traversed the eastern cordillera in the mountains and lowlands. Some of these roads reach heights of over 5,000 metres (16,000 ft) above sea level.[2]:242 The trails connected the regions of the Inca empire from the northern provincial capital in Quito, Ecuador past the modern city of Santiago, Chile in the south. The Inca road system linked together about 40,000 kilometres (25,000 mi) of roadway[1]:242 and provided access to over 3,000,000 square kilometres (1,200,000 sq mi) of territory.