"In the winter of 1527, a boat arrived at a lonely island off the Pacific shore of South America," "It had come to rescue a ragged band of desperadoes who'd been searching the unknown for lands of gold" "Their leader was an old conquistador called Francisco Pizarro," "Pizarro still believes that somewhere to the south there's an undiscovered world." "But his men now have had enough of his promises." "They just want to get out." ""He's a butcher, a savage!" "Get us off this hellish beach!"" "Then Pizarro gets up and he takes his sword and... draws a line in the sand." ""Friends and comrades," he said," ""this side of the line is danger, death, hunger, abandonment." ""This side of the line, comfort and safety." ""That side of the line, go back to Panama and you'll be poor." ""Cross over this side and you'll be rich beyond your wildest dreams."" "13 of them cross over - the glorious 13, they called them." "They would participate in one of the most amazing events in history - the conquest of an empire which until that moment was unknown to the whole world, the Empire of the Incas." "Unlike the Europeans, the Incas still lived in sacred time," "For them, the sun was god and every, day they worshipped his first appearance from the bitter Andean night," ""And we thought this was the whole world," said one of them," ""For we knew of ho other,"" "Until the Spanish came," "In 1532, Pizarro returned to Peru with a small private army," "With him were the survivors from his island, his hometown friends and four of his brothers, as close-knit as a Mafia clan," "Ahead of them lay a vast empire and the great Inca himself Atahualpa," "In November 1533, after months of trekking south," "Pizarro reached the foot of the Andes," "We set out to follow in his footsteps," "(HE GREETS HER IN SPANISH)" "At first, the local people fed the strangers," "Pizarro himself slept in their houses," "I'll be reasonably comfortable!" "I shouldn't have imagined a mattress." "He taught Spanish to two Indians so he could converse in Quechua, the Inca language," "The Spanish gathered their first impressions of this great state and its people," ""How rational the Indians are," said P izarro's secretary," ""The people seem very, obedient to their rulers, "" "Here, the Spaniards tasted potatoes for the first time," "Along with more exotic dishesl" "There's an old story that in ancient Inca times, there was a period of famine." "The people were starving." "They discovered this furry rodent among the rocks." "It was good to eat and it saved them." "They only eat it for special festivals - religious festivals and so on." "They're doing it today because they've got a foreign guest." "Next day, we loaded up to follow Pizarro into the Andes," "It's an unbelievable thought - Pizarro had 62 horse and 102 foot plus some native allies from further up the coast." "He's entering an empire of five or ten million!" "Maybe if he knew, he would go back!" "He hadn't seen the Inca army, had he?" "Amazing." "Amazing." "He's a canny character, Pizarro." "Illiterate, middle-aged, tough as old boots." "And very, very clever." "He understood that the Incas were a civilisation that, for all its wonders, would be at the level of the Bronze Age and that with guns and Toledo swords he could strike where it really hurt." "The roads of the Inca Empire stretched 3,000 miles, from Chile to Ecuador," "And this one led to the camp of the Inca himself at the town of Cajamarca," ""We followed a narrow steep path," the Spanish said," ""straight up to the mountain peaks,"" "It's still there, with its Inca steps," "Look at this!" "Is this Inca, Ricardo?" "Nobody but the Incas made this kind of work." "Look." "I've got the account of Pizarro's secretary of their journey up this pass." "He says how steep the pass was." "When they got to the top, it was defended by a fortress surrounded by stone walls, built on a hill with very steep rocks on either side." "That's it!" "We're on his tracks!" " Almost nobody knows this place in Peru." " Really?" "It's amazing." "The Spaniards were seeing things no outsider had ever seen," "The last moments of a world untouched since the dawn of history," "After five days' march over the mountains," "Pizarro came out above the town of Cajamarca," "The campfires of the enemy that night were a terrifying sight, the Spanish said." ""Like a brilliantly star-studded sky."" "Atahualpa's army, they reckoned, was 30,000 strong," "The Spaniards were on edge now," "Why had they been allowed to come on unopposed" "Were they walking into a trap?" "Pizarro's secretary, tells the tale," ""Few of us slept that night." "We just talked about what we should do." ""All were full of fear, for we were so few, and so deep into the land." ""And with no hope of rescue."" "The Inca, Atahualpa, was taking the waters at the hot springs outside the town," "And it was here that the two worlds first met," "The Spanish advance party told A tahualpa that Pizarro loved him dearly and would fight for him against his enemies," ""And he smiled," said the Spanish," ""as if he didn 't think much of us,"" "Atahualpa told them they could stay in the town," "0minously, when the Spanish entered the town, they found it empty," "They occupied a building on the square and waited to see what the Inca would do," "Atahualpa's spies had been watching them all the way," "His chief spy, Apu, reported back," "We know, from several chroniclers, what Apu reported." "He reported to his boss the following." " 0ne, they are not gods." " Not gods?" " The Inca knew that." " Doesn't mean the people knew that." "0K? "I have seen them," said Apu, "I have seen how they get tired."" "0r sick." "And a few of them died." "Gods don't die." "They don't get sick." "But they decided a plan." "They said let's kill them all except three of them, who are going to be castrated." "The horse-breaker," " the iron man..." " The blacksmith?" "The guy who does the horseshoes and the weaponry." "And the barber." "The horse-breaker and the other one, of course, to establish the cavalry of Atahualpa." "But the barber because, Apu said, "He knows something." "He has powers." ""I have seen the people lining up in front of his tent." ""They're tired, really messed up." ""And when they come out, I have seen them rejuvenated," ""fresh, health," ""and with their skin fresh as a baby's butt."" "Yeah!" "Atahualpa wanted to have Pizarro for lunch." "But Pizarro had him for breakfast!" "Down in the square, as the hours passed, the Spanish still waited" ""And I tell you," said one of them, "we were wetting ourselves in terror,"" "At last, Atahualpa entered the square on the shoulders of his courtiers," "He was around 30, handsome and intelligent, the red royal tassel on his forehead and a silky soft cloak made of the skins of vampire bats," "It's funny what people remember at such moments of high tension," "The Spanish remembered the lilting song with which the people welcomed him," "It's still sung today at festivals in the Andes," "(RHYTHMIC CHANT)" "Pizarro watched with his captains and his priest, Valverde," "Atahualpa took his seat in the middle of the square," "Valverde stepped forward with a cross and a prayer book and made a speech about Christ and the Pope." "He called upon the Inca to abandon his false religion and embrace Christ." ""I follow my religion," said Atahualpa." ""The undying sun and the ancient gods of the Incas." ""What is your authority for your religion?" he said." "The priest held up his book." ""Give it to me," said Atahualpa," ""so I may see if it speaks to me."" "He turned the pages carefully and then looked up." ""Why does it say nothing to me?" he said, and he threw the book on the floor." "That was what Pizarro had been waiting for." "It was the moment on which his whole career had converged." "It gave him his pretext for war and he gave the order to attack." "From the porticos all around this square the Spanish came out and opened fire on the masses of people crowded here." "Inca sticks and fans were no match for Spanish guns and steel," "Some said 6,000 people died that night," "As the rain fell, the square ran red with blood" "But Atahualpa was captured alive," "They took him in chains to a prison close-by," "It's still there," "And now Atahualpa made an astonishing offer - to ransom himself" "If they would set him free, he would fill the room with gold" "0n his desert island, had P izarro ever imagined this?" "In his wildest dreams?" "The story's still told and retold across the Andes," "But there are other Inca versions of the story, 0ne of them a unique manuscript discovered only in the 20th century," "(MAN) Thank you very much." "This is it, the famous "Nueva Cronica y Buen Gobierno."" "It's really exciting to be facing this document, a document which is unique." "Because here, you not only see things that are valuable for the past, but also things that will help you to understand the present." "The author, Guaman Poma, was a man of Inca descent," "(0SSl0) This is the point of view of a vanquished." "0f one of those Indians who were conquered by the Spanish people." "He's always insisted that the real owners of the Indian territories are the Indians and the Spaniards are the owners of Spain." "And each one in their own realm is perfect." "0rder is perfect." "But if the Spanish come here and pretend to be the owners, then that is representing the disorder of the world." "The world is upside down." " (W00D) The world is upside down?" " Yeah." "To gather the gold, Atahualpa ordered his people to allow the Spanish to travel freely through his empire," "And the Spaniards set out on the greatest plundering raid in history," "So why did A tahualpa do it?" "According to Guaman Poma, the Inca had never seen the strangers as a threat," "Now, he thought, if he delivered the gold as promised," "Pizarro would simply go away," ""At that time," says Guaman Poma," ""we Indians lost all sense of direction, We forgot our gods" ""and lost the authority of our rulers,"" "So Pizarro's men stripped the gold off the greatest shrines in the Americas," "Atahualpa filled his ransom room with seven tonnes of it, one of the greatest treasures in all of history," "He'd kept his word But what would P izarro do?" "Pizarro put Atahualpa on trial for treason," "The jury, - the Pizarro brothers and their friends," "The verdict - "The Inca must die,"" ""It was the most despicable thing we ever did in the Americas, " said one conquistador," "In the Andes, the people have never forgotten," "(HE SPEAKS QUECHUA)" "Corazon?" "The heart of a puma, si?" "They killed him like a llama." "For the Incas, these events were almost beyond belief" "This was a "Pachacuti" - the world turned upside down," "Pizarro now marched his army in triumph south, on the Inca royal road, a thousand miles to the capital of the Inca Empire, Cuzco," ""0n November 15th, 1533," ""we Spaniards reached Cuzco," ""It was a wondrous thing to behold" ""No prize ever equalled this," ""The streets were grand," ""the palaces of finely-jointed stone blocks of great antiquity, "" "It was the richest town in all the Indies, founded by the first Inca and refounded in 1533 by Francisco Pizarro," "And so, at last, Pizarro looked down on his prize," "The city of the Incas, with its great ceremonial square and the huge palaces of the Inca royal clans," "It was a turning point in the history, of the world" "The Inca believed this place was the navel of the earth." "It was the sacred centre of the last of the civilisations to arise independently on the planet." "And the fall of the city to the Spanish, coming so soon after the fall of Mexico, seems now like the beginning of the end for the traditional civilisations of the world." "The end of sacred time." "The triumph of profane time." "For Pizarro's expedition was a profit - making venture backed by the bankers of Europe," "From now on, across the Atlantic, the talk was of hothing but Peru and gold" "Europe was amazed Spaniards flooded into Peru on a gold rush," "The Pizarro brothers flaunted their new-found fortunes," "For them, these were days of wonder as they tightened their grip on the people and the riches of P eru," "To win hearts and minds, the Pizarros appointed a puppet king," "Atahualpa's half-brother Manco," "But the Spaniards treated him with contempt," "To the Incas' horror, Gonzalo Pizarro raped Manco's wife and took her for himself" "Word soon spread of a war of liberation," "Manco summoned his leaders to a secret meeting," "Perhaps it took place in the Inca sun temple which still stands today inside a Cuzco church," "Manco's words were recorded by his son Tito Cusi," ""I've summoned you all here," said Manco," ""because we all know now clearly who these foreigners really are." ""They're not worthy people sent by God," ""but children of the devil." ""We've endured a thousand insults, they treat us like dogs" ""while swearing to be our friends." ""Now I want you to send your messengers throughout the whole country." ""Summon all your forces to gather here in Cuzco in 20 days' time" ""to attack them." ""Make sure the bearded ones hear nothing about this" ""and we'll kill every last one of them." ""Then, perhaps, we may waken from this nightmare."" "Manco's plan was a concerted attack all over Peru," "Above Cuzco, a vast Inca army gathered in the hills," "The Spaniards were surrounded" "Cut off in Lima, Francisco Pizarro sent frantic pleas to Mexico for help," "Three relief columns were wiped out by Manco's armies," "Here in Cuzco," "Spanish survival hung on whether they could take the Inca fortress which controlled the city at Sacsayhuaman," "The Spaniards were outnumbered and, at times, outfought," "Juan Pizarro was killed But in the end, the Incas were outgunned" "The last battle for these walls was fought with a desperate heroism by the Inca warriors." "Like the Aztec battle for Mexico City, it recalls the great classical epics like the "Iliad", the siege of Troy." "The last of the great Inca heroes, they say, stood on top of these rocks armed with a European sword, throwing the Spanish off, killing members of his own side if they thought of surrendering to the Spaniards." "In the end, when it was clearly all hopeless, he threw his weapons down, stuffed his mouth with earth, scourged his face and threw himself off the rocks in fulfilment of his vow that he would die rather than give in to the Spanish." ""And so our encirclement was broken," says Guaman Poma," ""The Spaniards had bought themselves a breathing space, "" "The Pizarros now took savage reprisals against the civilian population, the women and children who helped Manco's army," "A massive exodus followed as those who could fled north into the Sacred Valley," "The Sacred Valley was the Inca heartland" "Here they built their finest palaces with huge terraces to grow maize and coca leaves," "Here, Manco and his high priest could call on the help of the ancestors," "At Machu Picchu, the mummies of the dead Incas could be brought out of their womb-like chambers to greet the sun," "Their dead eyes regaled as in life with the vistas of the sacred peaks," " ~Buenos dias!" " ~Buenos dias!" "According to Guaman Poma, Manco built new terraces and houses here to feed and shelter the influx of troops and refugees," "You can still see them at 0llantaytambo, with its Inca housing plots and water channels," "The Incas boasted that Manco had made this the strongest fortress in all Peru," "And it was here that the Pizarros launched their next attack," "They fought their way through the narrow lanes of the town," "Then they attacked the fortress which towers above," "The Spaniards now sent their force of commandos up to try and seize the rocks above the fortress." "Hernando Pizarro led the assault up these steps while the Incas rained down missiles, spurred on by Manco, who rode the terraces above on a Spanish horse," ""Suddenly, the Indians hit us from every, side," ""To hear the roar of their army," ""it was as if the mountain was about to crash on top of us, "" "For the first time, the Spanish had been beaten in a pitched battle," ""0ne more day and we would have killed them all, " said Tito Cusi," ""My father's men laughed heartily at the Spanish rout" ""and how we celebrated our victory,"" "Manco planned to make a new Cuzco here in the Sacred Valley," "He even built a great council chamber, carved with the royal pumas," ""By such monuments, he hoped to be remembered always, " said Guaman Poma," "But Manco knew that Spanish colonists were pouring into Peru every, month," "Within a year, Manco realised he would have to pull right out of Spanish reach, to the jungles the far side of the Andes," "Peru would be partitioned" "It must have been a heartbreaking moment for the young Inca," "When Manco had decided to retreat up the valley into the jungles of Vilcabamba he made a speech to his loyal followers." "A moving speech, too, a little like Bonnie Prince Charlie going over the sea to Skye." "He asked them to remember his ancestors, the Incas of the past, had been good rulers, had cared for the people and provided for them." ""Don't forget that," he said." ""Don't let your children forget it."" "Then he said these extraordinary words which are all the more striking now." ""I know," he said, "that one day, in the future," ""the time will come when they will force us to worship their gods." ""And when that day comes," ""do what you have to do in front of them, but in private don't forget our ceremonies" ""and our gods." ""And if they try to force you to destroy our shrines," ""only reveal what you have to and keep the rest hidden in your hearts."" "So the Inca Empire was to be divided" "Manco's court and his army began their long march over the Andes, demolishing the road behind them as they went," "Nearly 13,000 feet." "Good Lord!" "No wonder my hands are freezing cold!" "But even now, the Incas still dreamed that one day they might return," "0n the far side of the mountains, Manco hoped to organise a new resistance," "As Manco put it, "To free the land of our forefathers,"" "Manco destroyed the rope bridge here," "The river was to be the boundary, between the two worlds," "But no one crossed the Pizarros," "Gonzalo Pizarro now prepared to hunt Manco down," "Manco's line of retreat had led him to a remote jungle hideaway at Vilcabamba, the lost city of the Incas," "With him, Gonzalo took 300 of the toughest conquistadors, more than his brother had led to Cajamarca," "We set out to follow him," "I've now got fleas." "You may wonder why I'm scratching my hands." "I've been bitten by the dreaded "puma wacachi" - which is the fly that makes even the puma cry!" " It's got me all over." "It's true!" " Puma wacachi!" "Me wacachi!" "The first stage of our trek in Pizarro's footsteps took us across bleak uplands over the last of the high passes towards Amazonia," "Manco had retired to the farthest corner of the Inca world to create his new kingdom," "(MEN ENC0URAGE H0RSES)" " Is this the Pass Colpa?" " Yes, this is Colpa Pasa." " The Colpa Pasa?" " Yes." " What does that mean?" " That's the highest point on the trail." "I'll catch you up in a minute." "The Colpa Pass, the high pass." "About 12,400 feet." "This is the last of the passes before the road goes down and down and down towards the headwaters of the Amazon and down into Amazonia itself." "When the Inca resistance headed this way, they were saying goodbye to their old homeland." "According to Guaman Poma, Manco had pushed new roads into the interior," "And on the second day, we found them," " This looks like Inca steps, yeah?" " Yes, it is Inca steps." "They're quite well preserved up here." "Yeah." "Pizarro now scented blood" ""We cannot fail to get Manco now," he said, "dead or alive,"" "But Pizarro was too confident and he fell into Manco's trap," "(SPEAKS QUECHUA)" "Don Juvenal told us how the Incas had rolled stones down on the Spaniards," "There are still piles of rocks up there," "36 conquistadors were killed" "Gonzalo was forced to retreat and wait for reinforcements before he dared push on," "And Manco taunted him," ""I am Manco Inca," ""We have killed 2,000 Spaniards and we will kill you too, and free our country, "" "The following day, we came down through the clouds into sodden rainforests," "In places, landslides had taken the path away," "Such conditions must have sapped the morale even of P izarro's hardened conquistadors," "we came in sight of Manco's lost city," " This is Espiritu Pampa?" " Espiritu Pampa." "Si." "There it is, the Lost Valley of the Incas." "The site of their last city." "It's so secluded, so hidden, you can understand why it was never discovered until the 20th century." "You can understand too why the last of the Incas thought they might be safe here, hidden away from the rest of the world." "Pizarro had had to fight his way this far," "But when he got here, the city was empty," "Manco had disappeared into the jungle," "This is la plaza principal, Don Juvenal?" "Si, plaza principal." "(D0N JUVENAL SPEAKS QUECHUA)" "Today, Manco's city lies scattered over a square mile of forest, so choked with vegetation it takes time to make out the shapes of the buildings," "It's all on such a huge scale." "This is the terracing of the great plaza in the middle of the city on which stood the temple." "They brought all their most sacred relics here from Cuzco - the mummies of the last of the dead Incas, and above all the most sacred relic, the golden image that symbolised the rising sun in whose chest was a heart made of dough" "made from the powder of the hearts of the dead Incas." "They brought it all here to try to rebuild their world in the jungle." "Gonzalo searched these forests for two months till sickness and starvation forced him to retreat," "By his fingernails, Manco had survived" "In his fury Pizarro took revenge," "He ordered Manco's wife shot with arrows and floated her down the river in a basket to be found by the Incas," "Manco was grief-stricken for he had loved her very, much," "Meanwhile, Pizarro's private empire began to fall apart," "Like all Mafia families, the Pizarros had made bitter enemies," "In a scene from "The Godfather", Francisco, the discoverer and conqueror of P eru, was murdered by the son of his first business partner," "Manco, meanwhile, had made his new capital at a place called Vitcos," "Fantastic!" "There's the Vilcabamba river." "The Spanish described the place as being on a high mountain with wonderful views over the province of Vilcabamba." "0n top, they say, was a substantial flat area where majestic and sumptuous buildings had been erected with great skill and art." "You can see their ruins even from this distance." "Manco held court here for seven years," "The Spaniards were now fighting among themselves and he sheltered enemies of the Pizarros," "But there was a price on the Inca's head, and in the end they got him," "This is all that remains of Manco's palace." "Here's the finely-sculpted lintels that the Spaniards mentioned." "And here's the plaza where it all happened." "Manco was about to play a game of quoits with horseshoes with his Spanish guests, a game he liked." "His son Tito Cusi tells the story." ""My father was about to throw," he said," ""when one of the Spaniards stabbed him in the back." ""He tried to defend himself, but there were seven of them and he was unarmed." ""They stabbed him and stabbed him." "I wanted to defend him," Tito says," ""but I was only nine years old." ""They turned on me and I was terrified and ran off into the bushes." ""Though I was wounded in the leg, I escaped." ""But my father was killed."" "Manco had been the one Inca who offered hope of long-term resistance." "So the Inca Empire ended." "The political order was destroyed." "But things exist at different levels in history." "And empires are really just on the surface of history." "Below them is a much deeper structure that lasts much longer - the long-lasting, tenacious, deep-rooted culture of the people of a region, shaped by their landscape and climate." "Up here in the Andes, the Inca people survive and the beliefs survive, just as Manco Inca had said." "The people themselves did not forget." "Nearly 500 years on, the people of the Andes still revere the ancestral spirits of the Incas," "Every June, they go up in their thousands onto the glaciers of the Sacred Mountains," "Just before dawn, at a breathless 16,000 feet, they worship the ice of Qoyllur Riti, the Lord of the Snow Star," "And afterwards, like their Inca ancestors, the people greet the rising sun," "And then they sing the lilting song they sang to Atahualpa all those years ago," ""When the last Inca is dead," said old Francisco Pizarro," ""the people will weary, of resistance" ""and take our part,"" "But the conquest is not over yet,"