Mankind: The Story of All of Us TV - Ancient Aliens TV - Niall Ferguson TV - The Aztec Massacre TV - James Burke TV - Olly Steeds TV - Jago Cooper TV - Quechua Greeting - Atahualpa - The Secrets of the Incas TV - Jorge Fores-Ochoa - Francisco Pizarro - Mansio Serra Leguizamon - Francisco Xeres - Pedro Cieza de Leon - Christy Kenneally - Chris Everard - Nova: The Great Inca Rebellion TV - Machu Picchu: City in the Sky TV - Ancient X Files TV - Secrets of the Incas 1954 - Andrew Marr TV - In Search of … TV - Lost Cities with Albert Linn TV - Buried Worlds with Don Wildman TV - Destination Truth TV - The Mystery of Machu Pichu TV - Ancient Apocalypse TV - Builders of the Ancient Mysteries TV -
Most of modern-day Chile, Bolivia and Peru united under Inca rule. Mankind: The Story of All of Us V, History Channel 2012
Peru: Home of the world’s longest mountain range – the Andes, the spine of South America. Here in a high river valley, amongst peaks towering over 20,000 feet, the Inca established their capital city of Cusco which thrived for over 300 years until Spanish conquistadors arrived in the 16th century. Ancient Aliens s2e8: Unexplained Structures
Astonishing stonework but not all of it is credited to the Inca ... The Inca themselves believe the site was constructed by an earlier, unnamed race of people led by a powerful god who descended from the skies: Veracocha. ibid.
According to local legend a bird was responsible for the seamless construction. Legends say the winged creature carried a powerful chemical in its beak – a substance capable of melting stone. ibid.
Stone cut with amazing precision. Acoustic chambers designed for inter-planetary communication. And architecture configured to harness cosmic energy. Are these dramatic examples of advanced technology, or are they simply the astounding achievements of ancient engineers? Ancient Aliens s3e6: Aliens and Ancient Engineers, History 2011
Peru, Ollantaytambo: 9,000 feet above sea-level in an area the Inca people once called the Sacred Valley like the ruins of the ancient city of Ollantaytambo. ibid.
But how could the earliest humans on Earth have produced such astonishing stonework where massive interlocking blocks fit together with such precision? ibid.
‘These six giant slabs of red granite have stood here for thousands of years.’ ibid. comment
Cusco, Peru: Here lie the impressive ruins of the capital of the Inca empire that thrived from the 13th to the 15th century. Long suspected by Ancient Astronaut Theorists to have been a place visited by extraterrestrials in the distant past. Ancient Aliens s3e13: Aliens and the Secret Code
Ancient megalithic stones cut with astonishing precision. Sculptures depicting beings from around the world and possibly beyond. And legends of other-wordly giants creating an entire civilisation in a single night. Are the ancient ruins of Puma Punku the result of primitive man’s incredible ingenuity or could they be the product of another power? Ancient Aliens s4e6: The Mystery of Puma Punku, History 2012
Bolivia, South America: Here 45 miles from La Paz isolated high in the Andes mountains lie the mysterious ancient ruins of Puma Punku. Spread across the desert plateau at an altitude of over 12,000 feet the megalithic stones here are among the largest on Earth. ibid.
How could such primitive people, living perhaps tens of thousands of years ago, have produced such flawless stonework? ibid.
What if the foundations of the Inca roads and the magalithic sites along it were remnants of an ancient civilisation that once colonised Earth? Ancient Aliens s10e1: Aliens BC, History 2015
This is Machu Picchu: the legendary Lost City of the Incas. Well not so much lost, just never found by the Spaniards ... Machu Picchu is an extraordinary, mysterious place. It’s a sobering reminder that no civilisation is immortal no matter how powerful and mighty it may seem to itself. Niall Ferguson, Civilisation: Is the West History? III Property, Channel 4 2011
The collapse of the Inca empire in the hands of the Spanish Conquistadors was a bloody affair. The Aztec Massacre
What all that Inca silver had done was turn Western life into the money-go-round it is today. James Burke, Connections s2e10: Deja Vu, BBC 1994
Lost in the mountains of Peru is the legendary city of gold: El Dorado. Built from the wealth of the Inca Empire it’s the treasure trove the Spanish never found. But does it really exist? Mystery Investigator: Olly Steeds: Lost City of Gold, Discovery 2010
If Machu Picchu, a massive site, can remain undiscovered until the dawn of the twentieth century, then why not a city of gold hidden somewhere in the Andes? ibid.
It was more than just gold that was being destroyed, it was the heritage and identity of the Inca. And some of that stone and Inca gold is actually still here: decorating the church the Spanish built on the remains of an Inca temple ... A handful of missionaries did try to stop the carnage and looting, but the mercenaries from Spain prevailed. ibid.
In 1911 young American explorer Hiram Bingham arrived in Peru's sacred valley. Bingham was looking for a fabled lost city ... A place overgrown and all but forgotten. What Bingham saw astonished him. Dr Jago Cooper, The Inca: Masters of the Clouds I: Foundations, BBC 2015
Their empire was the biggest in the Americas before the arrival of Europeans. ibid.
These storehouses were an important logistical element to the growing of the empire. ibid.
This was an empire of the mind. ibid.
A catastrophic clash of two completely different cultures. ibid.
Deep in the heart of the Peruvian Andes there is a shrine ... The White Stone ... The empire they had ruled had shrunk. Dr Jago Cooper, The Inca: Masters of the Clouds II: Clash of Empires
A land of desert temples, of palaces in the clouds, and cities hidden deep in the forest. ibid.
Don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t be lazy. Quechua greeting
Your emperor may be a great prince; I do not doubt it, seeing that he has sent his subjects so far across the waters; and I am willing to treat him as a brother. As for your pope of whom you speak, he must be mad to speak of giving away countries that do not belong to him. As for my faith, I will not change it. Your own God, as you tell me, was put to death by the very men He created. But my God still looks down on His children. Atahualpa, Inca Chief, on hearing Pope Alexander VI declaring Peru a possession of Spain
The Inca built an empire without rival. It spanned almost an entire continent. The Secrets of the Incas, 2000
Yet the Inca left no written record. ibid.
Following tantalising legends, Spanish Conquistadors invaded Peru in 1532. They came in search of one thing: gold. ibid.
There are two distant concepts on the issue of gold: the Spanish were looking for metal because in their economy these precious metals were important. The Inca knew about the gold but the gold didn’t have the same value of money or wealth. Professor Jorge Flores-Ochoa, anthropologist
There lies Peru with its riches; here, Panama and its poverty. Choose, each man, what best becomes a great Castilian. Francisco Pizarro
I wish your Your Majesty to understand the motive that moves me to make this statement is the peace of my conscience and because of the guilt I share. For we have destroyed by our evil behaviour such a government as was enjoyed by these natives. They were so free of crime and greed, both men and women, that they could leave gold or silver worth a hundred thousand pesos in their open house. So that when they discovered that we were thieves and men who sought to force their wives and daughters to commit sin with them, they despised us. But now things have come to such a pass in offence of God, owing to the bad example we have set them in all things, that these natives from doing no evil have turned into people who can do no good. I beg God to pardon me, for I am moved to say this, seeing that I am the last to die of the Conquistadors. Mansio Serra Leguizamon
When has it ever happened, either in ancient or modern times, that such amazing exploits have been achieved? Over so many climes, across so many seas, over such distances by land, to subdue the unseen and unknown? Whose deeds can be compared with those of Spain? Not even the ancient Greeks and Romans. Francisco Xeres, report on discovery of Peru