The Inca Empire An Enthralling Overview of the Incas, Their Civilization in Ancient Peru, and the Spanish Conquest [Audiobook]

Did you know that the Incas worshiped the mummies of their emperors? For the Incas, death didn't exist; it simply took the dead to a different plane of life. So, the mummies of their emperors were treated as people; they were given food and drink and even visited each other ceremoniously. They also owned country estates, which generated enough profits to keep them in the style to which they were accustomed. This might sound like a curiosity, but this form of ancestor worship was central to the Inca culture and to the history of the Inca Empire, which stretched from Ecuador and Colombia in the north to Chile in the south. Everyone has seen pictures of one of the Incas' greatest achievements: the mountain-top wonder of Machu Picchu. But Inca history has always been told by the Spanish colonizers who conquered them since the Inca had no formal writing. Now, archaeology is giving us more information on how the Inca really lived, helping us differentiate real history from myth and propaganda.