Product Description: The glories of Inca and Pre-Columbian South America are vividly captured in this richly illustrated story of the rise and fall of the people of the region. The civilizations superbly imaginative craftsmanship in gold and silver, its beautiful textiles, embroidery, ceramics, and architecture are featured in spectacular color photography...read more

"I know of no other book in English that provides such a good region-by-region description of the Inca empire."―Bill Sillar, Institute of Archaeology, University College London In less than a century the Incas rose from obscure origins to build one of the largest empires of the ancient world. At its zenith Tawantinsuyu―“The Fourfold Domain”―extended northward from the Inca capital Cusco along the spine of the Andes to embrace most of modern Peru and Ecuador, and southward into Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. The sheer scale of the empire, coupled with the challenges of the varied and rugged landscape, makes the Inca achievement truly remarkable. This new survey provides the most up-to-date and authoritative account available of the Incas: their politics, economics, religion, architecture, art, and technology. The authors look in detail at the capital Cusco and at the four parts of the empire, exploring not just famous sites such as Machu Picchu but all the major regional settlements. The book concludes with the end of the empire: the arrival of the Spaniards, the assassination of the Inca ruler Atawallpa, and the final years of the rebellious, neo-Inca state in the tropical forests of Vilcabamba. The illustrations range from finely fitted stonework to superbly engineered mountain terraces, from stunning textiles to brilliant metalwork in gold, silver, and bronze. 15 color and 135 black-and-white illustrations

Product Description: A trip across time along a golden labyrinth leading to the birth of pre-Columbian civilizations. More than 250 masterpieces from the most important museums of Peru reveal the mastery and the skill of the pre-Columbian goldsmiths of the Central Andes, as well as how gold forged the belief, the rituals, the earthly and heavenly spheres, and the way of representing the political and the religious...read more

When Pizarro arrived in Peru in 1532 he found a vast empire rich in gold and silver. Ruled by monarchs claiming descent from the sun, its people built roads, bridges and fields through the Andes. But within months the empire had been conquered and its subjects killed or enslaved.