In the remote highlands of Peru lies a unique community, San Cristobal de la Paz, where the ancient Inca language, Quechua , still resonates at an altitude of 13,000 feet. Here, amidst the rugged...
In the heart of Miraflores, a part of Lima’s bustling city center, the well-preserved Huaca Pucllana ceremonial center site has yielded the remains of a 1,000-year-old mummy, dated to the beginning...
Since ancient times, ubiquitous to various cultures, humankind has sought to overcome that which they cannot control, such as healing mysterious afflictions and trying to predict the veiled future,...
Mummies have long captured the imagination of people all over the world. These preserved remains offer a fascinating glimpse into the lives, beliefs, and traditions of ancient cultures. From the...
Renata Flores, the 16-year-old musical prodigy hailing from Peru, has emerged as a beacon of hope for a language on the brink of fading into oblivion. Amidst the shadows of discrimination and...
Most ancient DNA studies focus on societal elites found in elaborate tombs. But new research on DNA gathered from the bones of servants who worked for Inca royals at Machu Picchu reveals a diverse...
Every year in June, Peruvian communities nestled within the Cusco region, once the capital of the mighty Inca Empire , come together in a remarkable display of cultural preservation and unity. Their...
An open-air “sounding” dance floor in Peru has been discovered, designed to mimic a drum-like sound, perhaps for a thunder god when stomped upon! Built sometime between 1000 and 1400 AD, the site...
Halfway up a near-vertical ravine in the Andes, someone carved an inverted V-shaped entrance into the mountainside. Then they sliced the bedrock with great precision to create a shallow door that...
The ancient practice of human sacrifice is one of the most haunting and mysterious aspects of human history. Most of us today find the idea abhorrent , but in many cultures around the world, they...
The Andes Mountains in South America have been home to ancient civilizations for thousands of years. High-altitude archaeology has played a crucial role in uncovering their fascinating history. One...
The Inca Empire left behind many mysteries that continue to intrigue and captivate historians and archaeologists today. One of these mysteries is the Quipu , a unique way of communicating and keeping...
Archaeologists in Bolivia have discovered 135 ancient hilltop sites including an enormous circular structure where they say members of ancient Andean cults would have once worshipped the sun. The...
Spanish conquistadors couldn't believe their eyes while exploring the rugged terrain of the Andes during their invasion of Peru. On entering Inca territory in the 16th century, they were bowled over...
In 1996, Jose Luis Delgado Mamani, a local tour guide in Peru, discovered an ancient archaeological site carved into Hayu Marca Mountain near Lake Titicaca, in the Andes Mountains of Peru, near the...
A brilliant new study on unkus , a type of standardized Inka tunic, has shed light on a rather important matter of socio-political organization – that of centralization of power. Based on the unku...
A long time before the Inka reigned, there were in those parts men in the manner of giants, as grown as they showed the figures that were sculpted in the stones. Pedro de Cieza de León Crónica de...
The Inca were an impressive people. From the 1400s to 1532, they created an empire so large it spread from modern Ecuador to central Chile. Master builders that rivaled the ancient Egyptians, their...
The Inca Empire was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. From their capital, Cuzco, in the central Peruvian Andes, the empire stretched over 2,400 miles (3860 kilometers) along the length of...
Indigenous peoples in the Amazon and Andes regions of South America have been chewing coca leaves for as many as 8,000 years. But did you know that these leaves were only transformed into highly-...
The blessed Virgin Mary has a long and dignified reputation within the Catholic church ever since her first appearance in the Biblical narrative of the Annunciation (Luke 1:26), where she is...
One need not search too long ago into South American history to identify a range of consumable drinks that would challenge and defeat, hands down, any of their modern derivatives - which are mostly...
Since the dawn of humanity, countless civilizations have engaged in ritual sacrifice. Often, these sacrifices involved other humans, and were so common they were considered a normal aspect of life...
If you thought the Greek gods had a monopoly on selfishness, rape, deception and other shady derring-do, you were wrong. Take, for instance, the Inca god Coniraya (also Cuniraya), who might have fit...