The houses are more than two hundred paces in length, and very well built, being surrounded by strong walls, three times the height of a man. The roofs are covered with straw and wood, resting on the walls. The interiors are divided into eight rooms, much better built than any we had seen before. Their walls are of very well cut stones and each lodging is surrounded by its masonry wall with doorways, and has its fountain of water in an open court, conveyed from a distance by pipes, for the supply of the house. In front of the plaza, towards the open country, a stone fortress is connected with it by a staircase leading from the square to the fort. Towards the open country there is another small door, with a narrow staircase, all within the outer wall of the plaza. Above the town, on the mountain side, where the houses commence, there is another fort on a hill, the greater part of which is hewn out of the rock. This is larger than the other, and surrounded by three walls, rising spirally. Francisco Xeres, ‘Massacre, Gold and Civil War’
When I set out to write for the people of today and of the future, about the conquest and discovery that our Spaniards made here in Peru, I could not but reflect that I was dealing with the greatest matters one could possibly write about in all of creation as far as secular history goes. Where have men ever seen the things they have seen here? And to think that God should have permitted something so great to remain hidden from the world for so long in history, unknown to men, and then let it be found, discovered and won all in our own time! Pedro Cieza de Leon, Chronicles of Peru
The divine master of 12,000,000 subjects was confined ... His ransom: this room filled with gold to a height he could reach and two other rooms with silver. In today’s money it would amount to more than $250,000,000. Christy Kenneally, The Lost Gods, Channel 4 2005
The Inca genius for stone is everywhere, from the steep staircase to the terraced fields ... The cut stone blocks are set without mortar; they are an architectural wonder only matched by the engineering ability that brought them from a quarry eight kilometres away on the other side of the river. ibid.
By 1570 the Spaniards had stripped the Inca of language, land and worship of their gods, everything that made them unique. ibid.
The depiction of people with European facial features in ancient Aboriginal art is mirrored on the opposite side of planet Earth in Peru. Again we see depictions of bearded European people at a time and a place when no such Europeans should have existed. Chris Everard, Secret Space II
The Inca were the Romans of the New World. Incomparable artists and engineers, they built Machu Picchu, constructed the most sophisticated road network in the Americas, and created beautiful artworks and countless treasures out of gold. But their true genius was empire-building. Nova: The Great Inca Rebellion, PBS 2007
When [Francisco] Pizarro arrived in Peru the Inca Empire was already disintegrating. It had been formed only a hundred years previously when the Inca armies had spread out from their capital city of Cusco to overwhelm the many different Indian chiefdoms of the region. By 1532 many of the empire’s some 10,000,000 inhabitants were disenchanted with Inca domination and all too willing to ally themselves with the Spaniards in a bid to break free of it. ibid.
On a remote mountain ridge, high in the Peruvian Andes, are the remains of an ancient city. It has survived almost six hundred years of torrential rain and mud slides. Thousands of stones make up the site. Placed with perfect precision, some weighing more than twenty tons. Ancient Mysteries s3e5: Machu Picchu: City in the Sky, A&E 1995
Unlike Egyptian pharaohs, the Incan emperors did not prepare for a resurrection in the after-life. They believed that after death they entered another form of life, and continued to wield power over daily events. The mummies were fed and cared for. They were included as honoured guests at important rituals and ceremonies, including ceremonies of sacrifice. ibid.
Less than a hundred years after Pachakuti founded Machu Picchu the Spanish conquistadors shattered the empire. ibid.
A mysterious ancient relic revered by the Incas for its mystical power, protected by an armed order of warrior monks. New Ancient X Files s2e3: Incas Decoded & Viking Sun Stone, National Geographic 2012
A series of ancient knotted cords hanging from a line. ibid.
Money sings and I love music. Secret of the Incas 1954 starring Charlton Heston & Robert Young & Nicole Maurey & Thomas Mitchell & Glenda Farrell & Michael Pate & Leon Askin & William Henry & Kurt Katchh & Edward Colmans et al, director Jerry Hopper, Heston to bird
The police – they know where I am? ibid. her to him
The Sunburst was a legendary treasure of the Incas. ibid. archaeologist
Saturday 16 November 1532 Peru: Two worlds were about to collide. Spanish adventurers had come for gold and glory. Now they had to face the most powerful man in the Americas … The unwitting rejection of Christianity became the excuse for slaughter and plunder on an epic scale. Andrew Marr’s History of the World V: Age of Plunder, BBC 2012
It is believed that somewhere in the high mountains of Peru lies wealth beyond imagining: gold, the lost treasure of a great empire … El Dorado … a story of lust and greed and treachery. In Search of s1e24 … Inca Treasures, History 1977
Machu Picchu: once a vast ceremonial city perched high up in the Andes. Built in the mid-15th century. It was the crowning glory of a vast Inca empire. But its origins are shrouded in mystery. The genius that led to the creation of this iconic city started somewhere. Where there is an end there is also a beginning. Lost Cities with Albert Linn s1e5: Inca Island in the Sky, Sky 2019
Were those mighty Inca warriors, were they standing on the shoulders of giants, of earlier civilisations? ibid.
Legend claims an ancient site is hidden on the hillside, and here is our first evidence of pre-Inca buildings. ibid.
We zero in on a large terrace … what looks like a plaza … they completely modified the top of this mountain. ibid.
From skeletons hidden deep underground to a gruesome initiation in the dark tunnels beneath a real-life temple of doom to the site of the world’s most horrifying human sacrifice, I’m answering the dark world of hidden Peru where mysterious tribes performed bizarre and bloody rituals. Hidden Worlds of Don Wildman I: Temples of Doom, Discovery 2020
But the Inca people not only survived here, they managed to build an epic empire across a huge part of South America. ibid.
A real-life temple of doom … first discovered over one hundred years ago. ibid.
Skeletons Found in Peru May Shed Light on Pre-Inca People. ibid. The New York Times
A fellow explorer and South American adventurer recently reported about a lost Inca city that you can’t find on any map. And even more incredible locals claim it’s haunted. Destination Truth s3e7, Skyfy 2009