Machu Picchu panorama

Returning to Machu Picchu and the Challenges of Cultural Preservation

A guest post by Charlie Bennet “Few romances can ever surpass that of the granite citadel on top of the beetling precipices of Machu Picchu, the crown of Inca land”  -- Hiram Bingham, Inca Land When Hiram Bingham...

huaca rajada, sipan, peru

Sipán and the Tombs of the Moche Elite

The Moche lords of Sipán had slept undisturbed since AD 250, more than 1,000 years before the rise of the Inca Empire Buried deep within the now well-weathered stepped pyramid and platforms of the Huaca Rajada, these nobles...

spanish conquistadors attack atahualpa

The Inca Timeline

From emergence to expansion, from rise to fall, the Inca timeline is a complex, fascinating and ultimately tragic chain of events For clarity’s sake, the following chronology omits many finer details -- but it should provide...

Tawantinsuyu

The Tawantinsuyu and the Frontiers of the Inca Empire

The Incas divided their empire into four parts, or suyus, each extending from the capital city of Cusco, the so-called “Navel of the Earth” Collectively, the Incas referred to their empire as the Tawantinsuyu, which can be...

how to peru inca

The Three Pacha Realms of Inca Mythology

In Inca mythology, the cosmos was divided into three realms or pachas: Hanan Pacha, Kay Pacha and Uku Pacha These realms shared a similar structure to Catholic notions of earth, heaven, hell, helping Spanish missionaries...