What treasures of the Incas have reached our time, and where is the lost "golden" city of Paititi

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The legend of Eldorado, once arose, never ceases to inspire the whole world for all sorts of searches, including creative ones. Fascinating books and films are created about a mythical country filled with gold, expeditions are equipped again and again to find treasures that once existed. Meanwhile, evidence has survived that the land where the gigantic riches of the bygone Inca empire are stored does indeed exist somewhere deep in the South American forests.

Riches of the Incas and Conquista - Spanish Conquest

The Inca Empire originated in the 11th century and was the largest state in South America. It united the Indians over a large territory - from the modern city of Pasto in Colombia to the Maule River in Chile; at the end of its existence, the empire occupied an area of up to two million square kilometers. The capital was the city of Cuzco, according to legend, built by the first Inca - the founder of the state, Manco Capac.

Cuzco was known as a "golden" city, temples and simple houses in it were lined with gold plates. The Incas smelted precious metals in large quantities, and, in view of the Indian cult of the Sun, gold products were ubiquitous.

In the 16th century, the expansion of Europeans to the lands of South America began, very quickly the Spanish conquistadors took control of most of the territory of the Inca state. A special role in colonization was played by the conquistador Francisco Pizarro, to whom the glory of the conqueror of the empire belongs.

The forces were unequal - the Europeans won victories in clashes with the indigenous population. In 1533, the Spaniards managed to capture the Inca leader Atahualpa, whose forces were at that time weakened by internal strife. The name of Atahualpa is associated with the receipt of the largest war trophy in world history.

Ransom of Atahualpa

The head of the Incas offered to pay the Spaniards a ransom in gold and silver, and the gold was supposed to fill the room where the leader was kept, up to the height of an outstretched hand. Silver was brought to other rooms. The collection of precious metals took several months - 6 tons of gold and 12 tons of silver, a huge amount of values, confirming the special value of Atahualpa for the Incas.

Despite the ransom, he refused to release the leader Pizarro, and Atahualpa was executed. The treasures went to Europe on several ships, and their arrival in the Old World, due to the special value and the large amount of gold, caused strong inflation. Nevertheless, written evidence of contemporaries suggests that only a small part of that wealth was offered as a ransom. which the Incas had.

As the traveler Pedro Cieza de Leon, among other things, the first who left evidence of the existence of the Nazca lines, wrote, the damage to the Incas from the ransom was rather small, but (gold). According to the colonialists' estimates, the Indians smelted up to 180 tons of the precious metal per year. Where did the gold that the conquistadors did not get? According to legend, it was kept in a secret and inaccessible city, lost in the selva - Paititi.

The arrival of untold riches from the territories conquered by the Spaniards led to the fact that seekers of El Dorado, the golden country where the Incas hid their treasures, poured into South America. In search of an abandoned city, they traveled across the Amazon, every now and then there were eyewitnesses who confirmed its existence and presented coins with atypical minting as proof.

Missionary Andrés López wrote in 1600 about a large city rich in gold, silver and jewels, located in the middle of the tropical jungle near a waterfall, called Paititi.

The Inca state itself ceased to exist by the end of the 16th century, and legend said that the surviving Incas moved to Paititi, where they found their refuge from the Europeans. This story is still being told - every tourist will be willingly told about the city of Paititi, which is always located “somewhere nearby,” and which was certainly seen by one of the narrator's distant relatives or close acquaintances.

Is there really a lost "golden" city?

As for the name - Paititi, according to different versions it comes either from "paikikin", which in the language of the Quechua Indians meant "the same" ("the same as Cuzco"), or from "pay" - "father and" titi " - "puma", or, as another hypothesis says, contains an indication of Lake Titicaca. The latter gave rise to the legend of the golden city located at its bottom, which was the mysterious Eldorado. Another possible explanation for the name is the Paititi river, or Patiti, located near the mythical city, indications of which are found in some notes of travelers of the 16th century, but to establish which of the rivers South America could bear such a name at that time, until it succeeded.

A great contribution to the study of the phenomenon of the abandoned city was made by the so-called Manuscript 512 found in 1839, compiled a century earlier by a Portuguese expedition that made a trip deep into the South American mainland. The Bandeirants, or Indian hunters, traveled for about 10 years and reported about an abandoned city they allegedly found. The essay described in detail the streets, houses (most of which were two-story), a temple and a palace, caves that were once mines. The discovery of the manuscript gave rise to a huge number of conjectures, versions - including about Atlantis seen by travelers. The exact location of the city has not yet been established, but thanks to the interest in the legend, to date, many archaeological discoveries have been made and a number of Inca monuments have been discovered.

As for the lines discovered by Cieza de Leon on the Nazca plateau, their existence opens up to modern science and culture no less interesting questions