Peru - Lonely Planet Publications [12]
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The Chimú city of Chan Chan, outside of modern-day Trujillo was the largest city in pre-Hispanic America.
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In the highlands, several other cultures were significant during this time. In a relatively isolated and inaccessible patch of the Utcubamba Valley, in the northern Andes, the cloud-forest-dwelling Chachapoyas culture (Click here) erected the expansive mountain settlement of Kuélap (Click here). It is one of the most intriguing and significant highland ruins – and one that is reasonably accessible to travelers, in addition to being blissfully crowd-free. Further south, several small altiplano (Andean plateau) kingdoms situated near Lake Titicaca left impressive chullpas (funerary towers) dotting the bleak landscape – the best remaining examples are at Sillustani (Click here) and Cutimbo (Click here). The formation of chiefdoms in the Amazon began during this period, too.
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An absolutely indispensable collection of articles covering every historical era, with rare translations of key works, can be found in The Peru Reader by Orin Starn, Carlos Iván Degregori and Robin Kirk.
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ENTER THE INCAS
Even though dozens of fascinating and highly developed civilizations had existed prior to the establishment of the Inca empire, Peruvian pre-Columbian history is often equated to just Inca history. This omission has occurred largely because none of the area’s pre-Columbian cultures had a written language, leaving contemporary archaeologists to piece together the history of pre-Inca Peru through the examination of artifacts found at grave sites and ceremonial centers. When the Spanish showed up, in the 1500s, with their many chroniclers in tow, the Incas had little interest in recounting the long and complex history that had preceded them. They gave the Europeans an image-burnishing account of their civilization, in which the Andes was described as a place of naked savagery until the Incas showed up and started running the show. For all its glory, however, the truth is that the empire really only existed for barely a century before the arrival of the Spanish.
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Secrets of Lost Empires: Inca is an informative DVD produced by the US public-TV program Nova which thoughtfully explores Inca history and architecture.
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According to Inca lore, their civilization was born when Manco Cápac and his sister Mama Ocllo, children of the sun, emerged from Lake Titicaca to establish a civilization in the Cuzco Valley. Whether Manco Cápac was a historical figure is up for debate, but what is certain is that the Inca civilization was established in the area of Cuzco at some point in the 12th century. The reign of the first several incas (kings) is largely unremarkable – and for a couple of centuries, they remained a small, regional state.
Growth began in earnest in the 1300s under Mayta Cápac, who began attacking neighboring villages in the Cuzco area, putting them under his control. But Inca expansion would really pick up under the ninth king, Inca Yupanqui, who in 1438, defended Cuzco – against incredible odds – from the invading Chanka people to the north. After the victory he took on the new name of Pachacutec, which means ‘Transformer of the Earth.’
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At its acme, the Inca empire was larger than imperial Rome and boasted 40,000km of roadways.
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Buoyed by his victory, Pachacutec spent the next 25 years bagging much of the Andes, as well as the area around Lake Titicaca, into Bolivia. He allegedly gave Cuzco its layout in the form of a puma and built fabulous stone monuments in honor of Inca victories, including