All language subtitles for The Children of The Sun - S01E03 - The Incas_track3_[eng]

[narrator] South America,
in the 15th century.

They appear out of nowhere.

Within just a few decades,

they build
the largest empire in the world:

the Incas.

In Europe, there is talk of a country
with fabulous gold deposits,

somewhere in the Andes.

Worshipped by his people as a divine
king,

the Inca rules over an empire
of ten million people,

from the steep highlands of the Andes

to the deserts of the Peruvian coast.

This culture appears
mysterious and strange.

Many things still raise questions

and puzzle researchers even today.

Who were these extraordinary people?

The rulers saw themselves

as sons of the sun.

They believed
their empire would last forever,

until the arrival of Spanish
conquistadors

suddenly changed everything.

This is the
conquistador Francisco Pizarro.

He will not give up
until he has found the country
"Biru,"

with its fabulous gold treasures,

but, in May of the year 1527,
the situation seems hopeless

when he disembarks
at the beach of the Isla Gallo

in the north of South America.

He has lost many of his men.
The survivors are exhausted.

Their greed for gold
has long since given way

to the naked fight for survival.

A new supply ship
is supposed to save them,

then he wants to make one final
attempt.

The Spaniard has no idea what is
awaiting him in the new world:

the Inca Empire, the most powerful
and largest state on the continent.

Its success story
begins in the 15th century,

with someone
who wants to change the world...

[atmospheric flute music playing]

...Pachacutec.

As a victorious commander,
he takes over power

and proclaims his divine rank
as the son of the sun god, Inti,

a descent, which, from then on,

all Inca rulers will claim for
themselves.

With breathtaking speed,
their empire expands.

The Incas subdue over 200 tribes.

Soon, they rule over
an empire of ten million people,

boldly, mercilessly, and effectively.

[male voice] Inca armies were
incredibly numerous in terms of
soldiers.

50,000, 100,000,
and even more in certain cases,

so it was a huge strength.

The most successful Inca ruler
and conqueror is probably Tupac
Yupanqui,

Pachacutec's son,

who has conquered tens of thousands,

hundreds of thousands
of kilometers squared.

You can compare him
to Genghis Khan or Alexander the
Great,

both for the size of what he has
conquered

and the quickness of his conquest.

[narrator] In just 80 years,
the Incas conquer an area

that stretches from
present-day Chile and Argentina

across the entire length
of the Andes to Ecuador.

A gigantic road network,

with two main and many secondary
routes
runs through the empire.

At its intersection,

the capital Cuzco with the
Coricancha,
the golden temple of the sun,

a place that the Incas proclaimed
the "navel of the world."

To this day, the Inca
are surrounded by an aura of mystery.

Written evidence
of their culture and history

has only been handed down
from the time of Francisco Pizarro.

What caused their meteoric rise?
What role did their rulers play?

Once again, Pachacutec returns to
the capital from a victorious
campaign.

He is celebrated like a god.

He believes himself
to be almighty, superhuman,

inviolable as a ruler,

and this is how his subjects see him:

they are not even allowed
to look their divine king in the
eyes.

[Eeckhout] When a new Inca accessed
the throne, he changed of essence.

He was not a human being anymore,

he was the son of Inti, the sun god,

which makes him
a kind of god himself, or semi-god.

He could speak to the god
and to the other Huacas,

which was very important
for maintaining balance in the world.

In anthropology,
we call this kind of a ruler

a divine ruler, the divine kingship,

which is very different from,
for instance, a European monarch,

who ruled by divine grace,
but not by divine descent.

[narrator] Three rows of walls,
made of granite blocks

weighing several tons,
piled up to 12 meters high,

cut and polished by thousands of
workers
and transported here from quarries.

Today, the temple complex
Sacsayhuamán above Cuzco

is a unique testimony
to the Inca architecture.

[female voice] Yes, there are many
secrets surrounding Sacsayhuamán.

There is still
very little known about the place.

We don't know how they were able
to move these large stone blocks

and put them on top of each other.

[narrator] Built without
cement and mortar,

the stones are so perfectly
anchored in the walls

that not even a knife blade
would fit in between,

custom-made for an impenetrable
bulwark,

which also served as a place of
worship,

or was intended
as such from the very beginning.

[Silva] Pachacutec wanted to show
the power of the Incas,

the power of religion,
the power of the gods.

It was created as an enormous
ritual place in Coricancha.

It had a giant,
spectacular gathering place

with walls that displayed the
deities,

like, for example,
lightning, water, or the puma.

[narrator] The mysterious combination
of the spiritual and the profane,

of domination and religion,

seems to be common practice
among the Incas.

All across the empire,
they erect new buildings,

often in extremely inaccessible
places.

[epic music playing]

But what purpose these gigantic
buildings

served has not yet been fully
clarified.

Why all these efforts?

And why here, of all places?

Today, researchers assume
that architectural marvels,

such as the legendary
royal palace of Machu Picchu,

reflect, above all,
the religious beliefs of the Incas,

going back as far as their founding
myths.

In the beginning, it is said,

there was only darkness and chaos,

until the creator created the stars,

the moon and the sun.

The sun god, Inti,
chose the Incas as his children.

As Inti's son,
the Inca was to rule on earth

and turn disorder into order,

just like the creator in the sky.

The powerful sun cult
is the backbone of their state
ideology.

The rulers actions
are based on the old myths.

[rhythmic drumming]

[male voice] The Inca developed
an Andean culture

that has the concept of the huaca .

It's a special place: springs, rocks,
mountains, streams, and so forth,

and each one of these
were imbued with certain power

and then the Inca took that concept

and they made it a little more
sophisticated

and they turned it into a state
religion

that, in their view,
justified their conquest of the
Andes.

[narrator] Huacas: this is what the
Incas

call their mighty natural
sanctuaries,

which, for them, are present
everywhere in their empire,

like landmarks of the gods.

About 100 kilometers away
from Machu Picchu,

the old Inca city of Clhoquequirao
rises

at an altitude of more than 3,000
meters.

Pachacutec had its temples and
palaces

partly hewn vertically into the
rocks.

It has long been assumed that
a holy place was the decisive factor

for the choice of the location.

When the first archeologists
uncovered

the terraces on the western steep
slope

in the 1970s,
an unexpected mosaic appeared.

24 llama figures, with white slate
inserted into the stone walls.

Yacana, the Lama, is considered
a holy animal by the Incas

and they even see it
in the sky as a constellation.

Pachacutec had left nothing to chance

at this location.

In addition,
he had a whole mountaintop removed

and transformed into a huge platform,

making it possible to oversee
the wide panorama of the mountains.

[Eeckhout] They choose
specific places with sacred mountains

and they adapted
the architecture to the nature

and not imposing architecture
on nature, which is very different.

This is what we call
"landscape architecture."

You have examples at Machu Picchu,
you have examples at Choquequirao.

When everywhere you look, you see,
wow, this is a wonderful point of
view,

this is also, this is also!

This is because it has been felt
that way by the Incas

in order to worship this environment
and to create a kind of scenario

for the Emperor himself,
as the center of the ceremonies,

to communicate with all this
landscape.

[narrator]
Astronomical calculations have shown

that, in Choquequirao,
at the summer solstice,

the sun rises exactly behind the
Yanacocha
glacier worshipped by the Incas.

1470: The Incas conquer
one state after the other.

Their next destination:

the coastal kingdom of
the Chimu, with its metropolis, Chan
Chan.

[chanting in foreign language]

Their approach follows
the simple strategy:

cooperation or war,
submission or death.

It starts with a peaceful takeover
bid.

Precious gifts
are presented to the Chimu king.

In return, the Incas demand
buildings for their administration,

craftsmen, and men
for military services as tribute.

In view of the military superiority
of the Incas,

many tribal chiefs submit to the
Inca.

They exchange their power
for the privileges offered.

However, their hitherto independent
rule
is absorbed into the Inca Empire.

The expansion of the Incas meant the
suppression and destruction of
societies

that lived autonomously and
had developed independently until
then.

The invasion stopped this development

and turned these peoples
into tribute payers.

The tribute was the decisive
social motivation for the Incas

to conquer foreign peoples.

[narrator] Miguel Conecho
has lead the excavations

in the Chimu city
of Chan Chan for over 20 years.

He discovered how rigidly
the Incas dealt with peoples

who did not cooperate with them.

The Chimu, famous
for their architecture and
craftsmanship,

were a rich people
with a centuries-old high culture

when Inca Tupac Yupanqui began
to besiege their capital around 1470.

For ten years, the Chimu resisted,

then, the Incas cut off
the water supply.

In the end, the proud Chimu had no
choice

but to bow their heads before the
Incas.

[Conecho] The Incas had great
interest in the Chimu kingdom,

because they had specialists.

They had goldsmiths,
ceramists, and great builders.

Chan Chan is an example
of their great architecture.

From the beginning, the Incas
intended

to relocate these specialists
for their own purposes.

[narrator] The goldsmiths
of the subjugated Chimu

are brought to Cuzco to gild palaces
and temples with their skills.

Today, there are hardly any
gold objects from the Inca period
left.

Only artifacts of the previous
cultures
give us an impression

of what the legendary Inca gold
might have looked like.

Their greatest treasure, the most
precious sanctuary in the whole
country

for the Inca and his people,
is the Coricancha, Cuzco's main
temple.

The massive golden sun disk
in its interior

represents the earthly manifestation
of the sun god, Inti.

Here, the ruler holds
a dialogue with the gods.

Gold was a symbol for the sun.
It had no material value.

This can also be seen from the fact
that it was called "tears of the sun"

and it was always used
to worship or represent the sun.

That's why the inside of the sun
temple
was lined with gold plates.

The Inca ruler, who himself was the
son
of the sun, ate from golden dishes.

The Inca nobles,
who were also descendants of the sun,

were allowed to wear golden jewelry,
which were forbidden to other people.

[narrator] When an Inca king died,
his power was far from broken.

As an immortal deity,
he lived on in the community.

His mummy was
an indispensable advisor for the
living.

Thus, the great founder
of the empire, Pachacutec,

remains present after his death

as a divine mediator between the
worlds.

[whispering in foreign language]

[narrator] These mummies still had
their servants who dressed and fed
them.

They accompanied the living Inca
ruler on

his journeys and took part in
festivals.

Tupac Yupanqui will also commit
himself to this tradition

as the successor of his father

and, for him, too,
the advice from the hereafter

will be a decisive guide in his
conquests.

[Stanish] The Inca had a very, very
special kind of inheritance system

where the new emperor
did not inherit the wealth,

but he inherited the mechanisms
of power of the empire

and the new emperor
had to go out and get new territory,

otherwise he
could not provide for his faction.

The old emperor owned the old
territory,

his mummy, the actual mummy,

was the owner of the previous
conquest

and, as long as this mummy existed,

his clan, his group
had access to that wealth.

[narrator] To break the magic of the
dead,

the Spaniards were later to burn
the mummies of all the rulers,

in the eyes of the Inca people,
an unbelievable regicide.

Mortal remains of less prominent
people

have been preserved for research,

and provide insights into

the medical abilities
of the early Andean cultures.

Numerous finds in
the Archeological Museum of Lima

show elaborate surgical procedures,
including even skull openings,

the trepanations.

The special thing about this specimen
is the opening of the skull,

which is quite shocking to us.

The skull shows that this person
must have suffered a trauma

at some point in his life.

Healers then apparently took action.

First, they scratched
the skull bone thinner and thinner,

until they reached the last layer
that covers the brain,

then they also cut through this
layer to release the pressure.

[foreboding music playing]

[narrator] Artfully closed and
healed,

some patients seem to
have survived this procedure.

By examining skulls and mummies,

experts in Lima try to reconstruct
individual medical histories.

This man, for example,
had been operated on before his
death.

He was between 30 and 40 years old
and was corpulent,

as his wrinkled skin proves.

An oyster shell was placed on his
chest,

a burial gift that only
wealthy people were allowed to have.

[Briceño] We can still see
the badly-healed skin on the bones.

I think this person didn't survive

and died from
the complications of the surgery.

[narrator] Tupac Yupanqui seems to
have

followed the advice of his father's
mummy.

Indeed, his campaign
to the north was successful.

Now, he moves along
the coastal road to Pachacamac,

the next region he wants
to annex to his growing empire.

This place was holy
even to the pre-Inca cultures,

because there's a powerful oracle
here in the desert.

Now, its magical attraction
is meant to serve the new ruler.

Researchers from
a Belgian-Peruvian joint project

have been working here for 20 years.

They want to find out
what significance this sacred site
had

for the people before
and during the Inca period.

For excavation director Peter
Eeckhout,
the terrain is a rare treasure trove.

[Eckhout] Pachacamac is a huge site

that was occupied during more than
1,000 years when the Incas arrive.

It was the seat of the sanctuary
of a powerful god,

which was called Pachacamac,

and which was a creator god
and also an oracle,

and Pachacamac holds a special place
in the cosmology of the Incas,

the way they were seeing the world.

[narrator]
Archeological investigations show

that the Incas preserved the old
cult,

but on the conditions of the victor.

On the highest point on the complex,

they built a sun temple
for their main god, Inti,

which, from then on,

towered over the oracle temple
of the local god, Pachacamac.

Thus, the balance of power was clear.

The oracle of Pachacamac
lives in a crypt down below,

in the painted temple
from the pre-Inca period.

Strict rules apply here.

No one but the priest
may enter the interior of the temple.

[shouts in foreign language]

[majestic music playing]

[Eeckhout] The priest drunk
a psychotropic beverage

and had hallucinations,
sound and also visions,

and so, in that state, which is
called
Hutirayay, which means furiousness,

he entered the crypt of the idol,
which was in total darkness.

[narrator] In a trance,
he makes contact with the god...

but to look into Pachacamac's
wooden eyes is forbidden to him.

One God, with two sides and faces,

Pachacamac sees
into the future and into the past,

he connects the universal opposites.

The Incas also believe

this is how the present
and the living world is created.

This holy place has completely
been taken over by the Incas.

Wall finds give the researchers rare
insights into the events of that
time.

The remains
in the current excavation section

once belonged to an administrative
institution of the Incas,

but then the archeologists bring to
light

bones from a much older burial
ground.

[Eeckhout] When the Incas
constructed it,
there were tombs here, but old tombs,

so the Incas didn't care
and they disturbed the tombs,

so, as you can see it, there is
lots of bones not in their position,

disturbed by the Incas,
who showed no respect

for these people
that were not their ancestors.

[narrator] Then, Peter Eeckhout and
his team make another sensational
find.

These are objects, the likes of which

have never been excavated
in Pachacamac before.

In the nearby excavation archive,
a penguin becomes everybody's
darling.

Over the years, the experts have
collected numerous unusual objects
here,

all of them precious offerings

brought here by pilgrims
from their distant homeland.

Colorful feathers from the Amazon,

filigree fabrics,

vessels decorated with shells.

[Eeckhout] The objects
that we find are made from materials

that come from very far away,

so, this is proof
that the Incas had succeeded

in making this site
something very important

and the pilgrimage has known
a very important boom at this time.

Thousands of people were
coming a year to Pachacamac.

[narrator] The Incas turned
Pachacamac
into the Mecca of the Andes.

That's how they brought one
of the continent's most sacred sites

under their control.

In order to keep the many conquered
tribes

under the direct rule
of the Inca in check,

hard rules apply
to the simple subjects.

They must not only
produce food for the community,

their labor must also be available
for the Incas at all times.

Everywhere in the country,

administrative and tax centers
are established

to handle the tribute payments.

Since the Inca didn't use money,
the taxes are paid in kind.

The tribute is meticulously
registered by knot experts.

They are the powerful
data guardians of the Inca Empire.

[speaking in foreign language]

[narrator] Using an ingenious system
of colored strings

on which knots are arranged,
the so-called quipus,

they produce highly-complex
statistics

for all matters of the state.

[Barrera] The quipu was
very important for the Inca Empire.

Because there was no
written documentation,

the empire needed a way
for the administration to record
things.

An empire cannot function if it has
no data on taxes, production, or
census.

[narrator] Even before the Incas,

the Andean peoples used
knotted cords as information
carriers,

but it was the Incas who used them
as a governmental regulation,

as a perfect system for bookkeeping

and an instrument of their
bureaucracy.

Lined up on a head cord,

each knot on the individual cords

represents a certain numerical value.

Depending on its position
and the way it is tied,

it stands for thousands,
hundreds and tens: a perfect
database.

The royal quipu is a showpiece.

It summarized information
from smaller quipus,

intended for the central
quipu archive in Cuzco.

[Barrera] The quipu are
still a mystery to us.

From Spanish chronicles, we know that
the Incas could tell stories with
them.

They contained historical
information,

which unfortunately have all been
lost.

We don't know how to read the quipu
and don't understand these stories.

[narrator] The art of reading
and weaving quipu

was reserved only for a small elite.

They were the guardians
of all collected information

and, probably for this reason,

they were among
the most powerful men in the state.

[speaking in foreign language]

Runners take over
the transport of the quipus.

Through their
well-organized relay system,

they bridge even long distances

in the network of Inca roads

in the shortest time.

They also delivered
important oral messages.

[thunder rumbling]

1493.

Inca Tupac Yupanqui,
the great conqueror,

is dead.

For one year,
the people will mourn their dead
ruler.

At every full and new moon night,

the community performs
the cult of the dead.

It symbolizes the guidance

for the soul of the deceased,

which sets out on a journey
beyond space and time

to the world of the ancestors.

Their transformation shall take
place,

nourished by
drink-, smoke- and blood sacrifices.

Tupac Yupanquis' successor,
the new Inca, Wayna Capac,

was soon to face an unexpected
disaster.

900 kilometers west of Cusco,

one hole next to the other,
in rows of four,

a mile and a half in length,

that's why this mysterious structure

is called "Band of Holes."

It seems to stretch endlessly
up the ridge of Monte Sierpe.

[Stanish] I got a phone call from a
fellow
from the United States, who said:

"What do you think of
that site called Band of Holes?"

And I'd never heard of it before,

so, next time I was working here,

Henry and I came up
and we looked around and said,

we really have no idea what's going
on.
This is a great mystery.

[narrator] This strange formation
fascinated the archeologist.

Charles Stanish counted
a good 5,000 holes.

At irregular intervals,

they are repeatedly
interrupted in their arrangement.

They seem to form individual
sections.

What were they used for?

Each individual hole is fastened
at the edges with stones,

the diameter is about one meter

and they are half- to one meter deep.

[Stanish] What's so special about
this site is, it's unique in the
Andes.

There has never been
anything like this described

and that would be odd, because
there is plenty of deserts, so...

this makes it unique
and it really doesn't conform to
anything

we've ever really discovered before.

[narrator] The archeologists are
puzzled:

Could these holes have been the
units of
measurement for the local tax office?

Only four kilometers to the east

lies the former Inca settlement
of Tambo Colorado.

Strategically located
on the road to the highlands,

the city serves as
an administrative center,

the headquarters of the tax
authorities,

and as a military base.

The idea that,
in the vicinity of such a town,

there might also
have been a counting point

for the recording of agricultural
yields

does not seem
to be made up out of thin air.

[Stanish] Tambo Colorado
is ideally situated

and the "Band of Holes" is where
the valley becomes very narrow

and it's right where people will
come up when the agriculture was
over.

It's on the road and so,
to me, my interpretation is

that Tambo Colorado
is intimately connected

to the "Band of Holes"
as an accounting device.

[narrator] Each hole a measure of
filling
for the agricultural tributes?

Or were astronomers
and spiritual grandmasters

rather than bureaucrats at work here?

Some believe that
the huge image of a snake,

a sacred power animal for the Incas,

was created here, with a lot of
effort.

Beyond the deserts,

every free spot in
the Inca Empire is used for
agriculture.

Yield increase is key,

because, for the growing population
and the huge army,

ever larger reserves have to be
stored.

The expansion of agriculture
is therefore systematically promoted.

New, high-yielding, varieties are
bred.

The Incas cultivate
3,500 different potato varieties

and about 250 different varieties

of cereals and vegetables,

such as beans and corn,

regardless of the
sometimes dizzying heights.

"Andenes," the word for terraces,

still gives the mountain range
its name today.

With hundreds of thousands of them,
the Incas transform steep slopes

into cultivated land.

They specifically focus on

studying the best
growing conditions for their crops.

Apparently, the Incas successfully
tested

earth from
a different region of their empire

at each level
at the terraces of Moray.

The farmers achieved harvest
surpluses

and stored reserves for emergencies,

but, they are not prepared for

the disaster that is about to befall
them.

November, 1527.

[Inca man] They are people
who can surely be nothing but gods,

because they claim
to have come with the wind.

They are bearded, very beautiful

and very white people...

they eat from silver plates and
even their animals, large animals

which carry them, have silver shoes.

[narrator] When the Inca Wayna Capac

receives the news
of the arrival of strangers

at the border of his empire,

he has no idea of the dramatic events
that will soon take place.

For him, the son of the sun,

the newcomers cannot possibly be a
threat.

[man speaks in foreign language]

After months of waiting on the Isla
Gallo,

Pizarro's reinforcements
have finally arrived,

although fewer men than expected.

Now, he dares
a first exploration on the mainland.

As it happens, he actually
meets locals who offer nothing less

than gold for a trade

and he is told that there is supposed
to be much, much more of it...

inland, in the mountains.

Now, Pizarro knows where he is
heading.

His finest hours are about to come.

[Stanish] What happened was,
the Spaniards arrived,

and the Inca saw them as dirty,
useless, it wasn't even a threat.

They did not see them as a threat,

in fact the Inca Empire
collapsed largely on the hubris

of the Inca emperor,
who ignored that threat for too long.

[narrator] In the years
before the arrival of the Spaniards,

in the heart of the Inca Empire,
its ruler had other concerns.

Rebellions in the North
challenge Wayna Capac.

He strikes them down,
but one trouble spot remains.

So Quito is to become the second
capital,

because his bitterest enemies occupy
the territory between Quito and
Cuzco.

Chachapoyas, "fog warriors,"

that is what the Inca
call the rebels from the rainforest,

whose land they conquered, but whose
people they could never completely
defeat.

[suspenseful music playing]

Gran Pajaten, wrested from the
wilderness

and reconstructed according
to archeological findings:

no straight lines and no right
angles.

Unlike the Incas
and all other Andean peoples,

the Chachapoyas build
round houses for their warriors,

which they decorate
with zigzag and lozenge patterns.

They bury their princes
near the clouds in the sky

as upright guardians of the
mountains.

How they managed
to place the elaborate clay
sarcophagi

on the steep slopes

often remains a mystery...

but one thing is certain:

the Chachapoya developed
an independent high culture

long before the arrival of the Incas
and became masters of the vertical.

Their mighty mountain fortress,
Kuelap,

as it probably once
looked from a distance,

surrounded by walls eight meters high

and 600 meters long,

it is even larger than Machu Picchu

and, as a fortification,
appears simply impregnable,

but things
must have turned out differently.

In 2008, 80 skeletons are discovered
here,

all men,
all carelessly buried in the earth.

Many bones show signs of battle.

Were they Chachapoya warriors,

who were taken by surprise
by the Incas in Kuelap?

Even the huge fortress was probably
not to be held against the
superiority

of a huge Inca army.

After decades of wars, of conquest,

the Inca Empire is
at the zenith of its power.

Insurgent peoples are punished,
others are controlled by alliances,

but, suddenly, an enemy appears
who cannot be defeated by armies.

Silently and invisibly,
it sneaks into the country.

From Mexico, it reaches Peru
long before the conquistadors.

Measles, smallpox, flu:

tens of thousands of Indians
die of these unknown epidemics.

Their immune systems
were unable to fight them off...

and the epidemics do not stop
even before the Inca Wayna Capac.

His empire plunges
into its deepest crisis.

[female voice]
In the ancient Peruvian cultures,

illness is always a sign
that the universe has lost its
balance,

and this balance must be restored.

Since their religion is largely
dominated by rituals of sacrifice,

they turn to sacrificial offerings.

When something as serious as
the illness or death of an Inca
happens,

the universe is turned upside down.

That means you have to sacrifice
the most valuable thing there is:

people or children,
because they are life itself.

[narrator] The volcanic mountain
Llullaillaco in today's Argentina.

In 1999,

the American-Argentinean
research team around Johan Reinhard

sets off for the summit of one
of the holiest mountains of the
Incas.

At an altitude of almost 7,000
meters,

they unexpectedly
discover sacrificial sites

and the bodies of three children.

Ice-cold and extremely dry mountain
air

have preserved the children's bodies

in their graves, as natural mummies.

Further finds reveal:

these are children who the Incas
sacrificed here 500 years ago in a
ritual.

Why did they have to die?

[female voice] It was really one of
the greatest discoveries of the
decade.

The state of conservation
of these mummies was amazing.

They were like little kids sleeping,

as if just about to wake,

so, I think it was one of the
greatest
moments for an archeologist

to see these little kids
that are messengers from the past.

[bird screeches]

[narrator] According to the Inca
faith,
these children were chosen ones.

Children who were sacrificed
to the gods in the holy Capacocha
ritual

for the good of the ruler and the
state.

One year before their sacrificial
death,

the lives of these children
begin to change.

They are picked up from
their homes dressed in valuable
clothes

and richly decorated with holy
feathers.

[Browning] Capacocha was the most
important ceremony for Inca culture.

It was an honor for their families

if one of the kids
of the family was chosen.

They must laugh, they must be happy,

because these children
were going to be gods.

[narrator] High dignitaries
accompany them to Cuzco,

their first stop
on their very long journey.

The children of Llullaillaco
have found their final resting place

in the cold chambers
of the Museo Arqueologíca

in Salta, Argentina.

Unexpected details came to light
when their mummies were examined.

The little boy was named "El Niño."

Selected feathers for his headdress
marked him out as the chosen one.

He was seven years old, well-fed,
and,

as hair analysis showed,

he had been regularly administered
cocaine

and alcohol before his sacrificial
death,

as had the six-
and fifteen-year-old girls.

They had spent several days in Cuzco
with hundreds of other children,

in a ritual the Inca had determined

at which of the country's shrines
they should be sacrificed.

On a final journey,
they then traveled for almost a year

until they reached the place
of their destination.

Miniatures and figures
modeled on high-ranking Incas

were to accompany them
on their way to the gods.

These are burial objects found by
researchers in various children's
graves.

[Browning] We believe
that the children were alive

when they get to the summit
of the Llullaillaco volcano.

They were put into these little tombs

and they died there,

because they were asleep,

because of this chicha
that was in their bodies

and because of the coldness
and the low pressure,

they just get asleep
and, slowly, they died.

Death, for them, was not an end,

it was just a beginning.

[narrator] 1,000 human beings,
children and adults,

are said to have been sacrificed
to the gods after Wayna Capac's
death.

Wayna Capac died
without naming his successor.

A bitter war of succession between
his sons subsequently divides the
country.

Vast areas are now almost depopulated

by disease and fratricidal warfare.

It takes five years before one of
his sons

finally emerges victoriously
from this cruel war.

He and his army retreat
to the mountains of Cajamarca.

Atahualpa:

his time seems to have come,

but there's one thing he does not
suspect:

He will be the last free Inca ruler

and soon seal the fate
of the entire Inca Empire.

At about the same time, in September
1532,

Francisco Pizarro leaves the coast,

heading inland with almost 200 men...

[dramatic music playing]

...but not a trace
of the much sought-after gold,

only deserted cities.

What had happened?

Can Pizarro trust
the Indians to lead him to their
king?

Weeks later, they reach Cajamarca.

Atahhualpa's huge army seems
overpowering

and, yet, the very next day,
in an unprecedented carnage,

they will bring about the historic
turn
in the history of the Incas.

[Eeckhout] Atahualpa was
very confident in himself.

He had a huge army,
but, those Spaniards arrived:

"Oh, strange, how exotic," you know,

"well, let's see what they have to
do."

He never imagined for a moment

that they could try to capture him,

because he was a sacred person,
nobody even looked in his eyes,

you can imagine that,
but they succeeded in doing it.

[somber music playing]

[narrator]
After almost a year in captivity,

Atahualpa believes
he can save his life after all.

He reckons with the Spaniard's greed
and proposes a deal to Pizarro.

He offers him a whole room
full of gold for his freedom.

Treasures for this gigantic ransom
are arriving from all over the
country.

The room his subjects fill with gold

is three meters high,

but, in the end, all efforts are in
vain.

Shortly afterwards, in a faked trial,

the Spaniards pass
the death sentence on Atahualpa.

"It was the most disgusting thing

we Spaniards ever did in the West
Indies,"

a chronicler
will later accuse this regicide.

On July 26, 1533,

the strangers execute
Atahualpa in his own kingdom.

At the last moment,
he had himself baptized

to avoid being burned to death.

He wanted to at least save
his body for the life in the
hereafter.

An executioner
will strangle him with the garrotte.

About 200 million euros,

that's how much
the ransom money collected in vain

for Atahualpa's life would be worth
today.

It is very likely
that the reason for Atahualpa's,

let's call it, "execution," was fear.

Pizarro knew for sure
that Atahualpa had a strong backing.

He simply saw no other possibility
than to have the Inca ruler executed

in order to seize the empire.

[narrator] The Spaniards
plunder the remaining gold

and destroy the holy sites
throughout the entire empire

also in Pachacamac.

Many of the peoples
once oppressed by the Incas

join this merciless conquest in
revenge.

According to the archeologists,
Pachacamac

is suddenly abandoned,
shortly after the Spanish plundering.

[Eeckhout] When the Spaniards
arrived,
they had no fear at all.

They entered the crypt directly,

they took the idol and
they smashed it in front of the
crowd.

So, for all these pilgrims and
the Incas and the people that were
there,

it must have been very traumatic.

It was like the God has been
vanquished,

or as if their god had abandoned
them.

[narrator] But the city itself
was not destroyed,

the buildings remained intact,

but a strange find

puzzles the archeologists.

During the excavations of a side
temple

they find rooms completely
littered with ceramic offerings

and the amazing thing about it:

all the vessels are broken.

The dating of these
more than a hundred objects reveals:

they all date back

to the end of the Inca period.

Something enormous must have happened

and, as the reconstruction
of the puzzle shows,

probably on purpose,

because the shards
were spread over several rooms.

[Eeckhout] In the ancient Indian mind
and for the Incas,

when you make such beautiful objects,

you give life to them,

and, when you destroy them
by smashing them,

and distributing their parts all
over,
it's like killing them,

so it's really a farewell ceremony,

a termination ritual,
as we say in archaeology,

and what is particularly
pregnant and dramatic in this case

is that this heaven
is the last one we have

and it's around the Spanish conquest.

[narrator] Their mighty God had
failed

at the moment of greatest threat.

In a last act,

the local priests celebrate his end.

Only shards of his cult remain.

Pachacamac is abandoned
by its inhabitants.

Soon, the Incas throughout the empire

have to retreat further and further

from the advancing conquistadors.

Their empire becomes
part of the Spanish Kingdom

and Ollantaytambo and Vilcabamba

become the last refuge
of the remaining Inca fighters.

The defenses in the mountains of
Cuzco
only give them a brief respite,

then, the Spanish crown
takes over for good

and they are left with
only a small realm in the hinterland.

40 years later,
the last resistance is broken.

With the execution
of the last heir of the Inca rulers,

the legendary refuge castle
of Vilcabamba is also destroyed.

The sons of the sun
experienced the highest ascent,

but also the deepest fall

in the history
of the South American continent.

The arrival of the Spanish
had changed everything.

The old order and
the old faith no longer applied.

The rulers were no longer divine,

the sun was only a star.

In the sorrowful experience
of foreign rule,

the people will soon begin
to glorify the time of the great
kings

as a utopia of a golden past

and create a myth of a legendary
place

to where the last Inca fled

with the gold of their ancestors:

Paititi, the lost city deep in the
jungle.

To this day, its treasures
have however remained hidden

from the eyes of the seekers.

The magical world
of the Andes preserves its secret.

[epic orchestral music playing]