Peru's Lost City Of Gold | Full Documentary | TRACKS

[Music] South America for 500 years a warrior people ruled over Peru and beyond they were called the Inca the people of the Sun [Music] they build great cities like Machu Picchu were they worship the Sun and sacrificed virgins to their gods [Music] eventually they would be destroyed by Spanish invaders searching for gold and glory I'm here seeking a city perhaps even greater than Machu Picchu one of many still lost in these jungles where the Incas history and perhaps their treasure lie undisturbed [Music] all right I'm David Adams this is the remote cloud forest of the Peruvian Rangers and this is where the last of the Incas found their refuge that's where they built their golden cities and that's why I'm here because hidden somewhere in this jungle vastness legend says there are cities still waiting to be found cities never sacked by the Spanish cities that may conceal hidden Inca treasure or even the holy grail of the Inca Empire the great golden disk of the Sun meet Gary Ziegler an archeologist and somewhere I've come halfway around the world to meet Gary's devoted his life to exploring Peru's jungle if I'm to have any chance of finding a lost city it's going to be with Gary's help we found this wonderful major Inca Road and these Inca roads always go somewhere so it's a good place to look for runs how are you sure that no one else has been up there well there's nothing recorded on maps so it's a really good chance that that no one's been up there that's good I'm pretty sure that we're gonna find something significant up there the Philco bomba the Incas final refuge the place from which they waged war on the Spanish and where they built their lost cities to get there I plan to head through this sacred Valley down the Urubamba River before arriving at the very edge of the Amazon basin but my journey starts in the old inca capital cusco in the late afternoon light it's easy to imagine cusco in its heyday as the City of Gold so intoxicating to the first Europeans to see it right now it's midwinter in the southern hemisphere time for inti raymi a festival of the Sun the oldest surviving Inca celebration a vital link to peruse past Guerry Ziegler's seen it all before though he couldn't wait and so he's headed straight to the mountains but I plan to take my time and get a feel for the people whose past I'm seeking the Sun set many years ago on the Inca Empire but something the spirit of the Incas lives on in music and dance it's here in the people and it's here in the stands of the buildings so perfectly constructed five hundred years ago the Sun was the Incas supreme god and the temples they built to worship it in were among the greatest pre-industrial buildings in the Americas the most celebrated of all was the korikancha the fabled temple of gold these walls look pretty bare now but once they were totally covered in gold right throughout the whole temple and there were gold and llamas and golden idols in these recesses the like of which the world had never seen in fact the only three Europeans ever to see them were the ones who discovered them and they also took most of it away part of what they took included seven hundred sheets of gold each one weighed four and a half pounds but the only thing they didn't take was the great golden disc of the Sun but someone did take it because by the time the Spanish returned to get it it was gone to this day it's never been found its final resting place remains one of the world's great mysteries most likely it's in the vilcabamba where Gary Ziggler's gone and where I plan to meet him in a week [Music] the journey takes me in the footsteps of one of the world's great explorers Hiram Bingham the man who put the vilcabamba on the map like Gary Ziegler he was an adventurer the discoverer of the most famous Inca city of them all Machu Picchu but Gary's egg was also an archaeologist so he's the perfect expedition partner by now I can't wait to follow him into the mountains and that means I need transport a typical way of getting from place to place in Peru is by buying a seat and a truck so for 150 solos about 40 bucks I have the doubtful honor of squeezing in for a long slow ride it's a wonder the driver is Don TF low is offsider if rain I think this is all about technique this morning yeah I think it's like a sweet spot somewhere this may be one of the oldest trucks on the road but no one knows that road better than don t airflow and it for him with their help I will follow a trail over 500 years old a trail that leads deep into the Peruvian rainforest to a place of ritual sacrifice Sun worship and golden cities the lost ground of the Incas the Incas believed they were the children of the Sun born on an island in lake titicaca this was their Garden of Eden the place where it all began [Music] where I'm going though is the place where it all ended the place where the Incas made their last stand against the Spanish and where they're supposed to have built their lost cities the Incas ruled over the largest empire since the Romans and like the Romans they built an elaborate network of roads stretching from the equator halfway to the South Pole and Criss crossing the continent from the Amazon all the way to the Pacific don t airflow might be right about keeping your eyes on the road but sometimes it's easier said than done because there isn't much of a road to keep your eye on [Music] he's agreed to take me to the top end of the sacred valley to the town of Aliante Tomball where I plan to hire Porter's for my journey into the Vilcabamba [Music] little accident' there yes there were many accidents the road is full of sharp things [Music] his friends call him El Rey delicate Adam the king of the road he's been hauling wool and corn back and forth between cusco and the sacred valley for over 50 years probably in the same truck on a hillside here the ruins of pisac I get my first look at the Urubamba Valley the sacred valley along this valley which goes into a big river not the river which gives down to the second valley of the incas an idiot then the terraces of the ruins of music to be forward guarded what was the breadbasket of the Inka Empire rank upon rank of Terrace Gardens lie in the valley when the Spanish first arrived they were still planted with corn and potatoes that were the staple foods of the 15 million strong incarnation these days most sly overgrown and ignored in fact Peru produces less food today than it did before the Spanish conquest one of the many advantages of traveling with a veteran truck driver like don t air flow is that he knows all the best truck stops no come on nothing like a good typical piece of cracker honest day's work you find small roadside kitchens like this all over Peru serving up the same food that kept the Incas going corn and potatoes if the favorite meat of the conquistadors pork in this case deep-fried teacher please then there's chicha the maize beard that was the sacred ceremonial drink of the Incas today though it's mostly drunk as a low alcohol alternative to regular beer I'd like a big glass please jump traditionally brewed chicha is women's work recipes are passed down the generations mother to daughter as a result I like no to bruise the same I won't to retry this I could do this I deserve a medal I think so Lou la vie salute ring hmmm that's actually very good but they do all have three things in common maize water and a magic ingredient see what he just told me is this stuff is prepared by basically women chewing the corn up in their mouth and then spitting it into a barrel and so and then it ferments it doesn't taste as good [Laughter] [Music] back on the road again and don't tear flow in a frame and their magnificent old truck have got me almost all the way to my destination of all places to stall in the Sacred Valley this is probably the worst impossible to get off the bridge and impossible for traffic and hand cranking this thing was never easy for anyone [Music] the Incas didn't have truck gods of course in fact they didn't use wheeled transport at all but if they had I would have offered up a short prayer right now getting to Aliante Tambo on time provides an unexpected bonus the day we arrived a local carnival is in full swing people have come into town from all the surrounding villages this means I can most likely hi the porters from my journey right here not having to go from village to village will save days arjan drew is from the paddock on Chevalley the same Valley Hiram Bingham hide his borders from which means I can have the rest of the day off to enjoy the carnival [Music] one of Peru's links to its past is the traditional dress of the Andean women the hats heavy petticoats and plaited hair and not Peruvian at all it's a dress code imposed on them in the 18th century by Charles the 3rd of Spain back then he ordered all his colonial subjects to dress in imitation of the Spanish peasantry of the day 250 years later most of them still do the main event is a competition where riders try to grab a corn cob suspended on a rope the idea is simple enough but like tried to start don t airflows truck it's not as easy as you might think [Music] [Music] beginner's luck maybe but not so lucky for the pride for you bank on that I don't think I'll be able to get cheated through customs the Incas not only worshiped the Sun they also celebrated the natural world thunder and lightning the mountains lakes and rivers the Urubamba River is one of the Incas most sacred and when you see it at its mighty thundering wildest it's easy to understand why [Music] at yesterday's carnival I met this man Eric Uranus and he's offered to take me to meet my porters downriver it's a nine-hour walk to our rendezvous point for about 90 minutes by River [Music] and trouble is Eric's a former Olympian and Peruvian power champion and unknown [Music] this is as good as whitewater kayaking gets and as dangerous get caught in the undertow on the wrong side of one of these rocks and you kayak will snap in two and so will you [Music] for me this is a recurring cycle of Terror adrenaline rush and calm but when you fall in it's nothing but terror [Music] time slows down directions get confused fight a river like this and do you lose well Phil that I mad if they're the least I'm here the same things as well rest can come later though tomorrow I climbed to the roof of the Andes and find the first Clues pointing to a place that's remained hidden from the world for over 400 years [Music] 400 years ago a band of Spanish soldiers emerged from the Peruvian jungle to gaze on this land their long sword prize the Vilcabamba this was the rebel Incas hideout their last bastion against the pillaging Spaniards the place they hit what was left of their gold and culture I must go deep into this mountain stronghold from the edge of the sacred valley through the high mountain passes of the Andes to Urich Rumi I'd left the river and expectedly early but luckily it's only a short walk to my rendezvous point Alejandro's friend is David s payer translator Shaymin and for the next two weeks an invaluable source of information with about all things income but they're just enjoying some fun dreams and love a beer true to his word Alejandro has organized a small team of porters these guys have spent all their working lives doing nothing but haul gear through the vilcabamba even so we're planning on going places even they've never been luckily though Alejandro has organized as a mule Skinner and guide called who banal hobos known as the old man of the mountains but before we go anywhere khoka just about everyone in the mountains choose these bitter tasting leaves so how do you take this we're basically as tourists they be oops before he threw it into sulfur tomorrow coca was sacred to the Inca which is hardly surprising as it's a kind of wonder plant it suppresses hunger and altitude sickness relieve stomachaches it even allegedly eases the pain of childbirth but most of all it provides energy the only thing this stuff doesn't do is give you a high but being the same stuff that they make cocaine from you have to you to about a ton of it just to get any narcotic effect it's more like coffee it just gives you a good buzz when you were up the mountain it's centered by chewing coca Inca messengers could run a hundred and fifty miles a day we're planning a much more modest ten miles legend has it that the vilcabamba was where the Inca hid their treasure and it's easy to understand why [Music] it's not just that it's a long way from anywhere it's also the crippling combination of the terrain coupled with the altitude what's normally a 10-minute stroll at sea-level becomes an hour-long hall at this height when Hiram Bingham first came up here he was an absolute amateur and so it really hit him hard we're nearly at 10,000 feet and we've been stopping every 50 feet well I can understand why 10,000 feet 3,000 meters doesn't matter which system you use when you start getting this high it's hard going in anyone's language [Music] the Andes range is the longest mountain chain on earth [Music] the terrain varies from jungle to glaciated I speaks at this altitude even the slightest breeze is bone-chilling you know we have a saying here in the Andes sauce and Guinea I'm putting up a Russian what does it mean whatever goes up keeps them going up I'm just gonna be happy when we start going down sadly that's still a long way away every now and then though we do get to a ridge top and the terrain flattens out for a short stretch of pampas what's so exhausting when you get up here under the Pampas after climbing up we're about 12,000 here is that it's swampland sinkholes and it's just exhausting walking through this mud there's mosquitoes everywhere but where there's water there's often an inca site because a reliable water supply was an essential requirement when the Incas were looking for places to build their cities on the late afternoon the 9th of August 1911 Hiram Bingham came across this Inka water course as soon as he saw it he knew he was near a significant sight and this was it Urich Rumi the white rock known to the Inka as the House of the Rising Sun well there's not much of a house left these days and the White Rock is more of a black rock because of the lichen covering it the Inka believed certain mountains Springs caves and rocks were all endowed with magical significance like shrines along a pilgrimage route you accrue me was one such place why was it so important to the Incas oh this because Manco Inca one of the last Inca ruler was who set up his new capital here and because he decided so this was like destroying the temple the temple of the Sun on the most important place in this area the Inca was stonemasons without peer and their legacy can still be seen in the way these guys make a cab oven the idea is to light a fire inside eat the rocks until they're ready to explode then throw in your potatoes collapse the stones and put on your meat cover it all over and then let it cook for an hour or so [Music] but not all cooking is done in the oven spit roasting is the preferred way of preparing the most traditional of all Andy and meats guinea pig oh it's good you reckon no so that the Incas eat a lot of guinea pigs well you have a special occasion yeah yeah yes because you know back home we we keep them as pets so the people that live up in these remote areas do they still consider themselves as Incas natives yeah yeah Quechua people yeah so is that is that do they take on some of the ways of the yuca they do they think of themselves as Incas still yeah yeah well you look like a lot of the paintings the spirit of the Inca is not only alive and well in davidís peyo it's also here in these mountains and tomorrow we head for one of the most sacred of all inca sites a place so remote more Gringo's will climb Mount Everest this year that have been to where we're going in the last 400 years high on a mountain plateau in the Peruvian Andes a ceremony to greet the dawn unchanged since the time of the Inca holy man David as peyo leads the porters in asking the mountain gods for their blessing and safe passage today we must climb to one of the most sacred of all sites in the vilcabamba in Kauai said but first we present gifts to the mountain literature and the nature of our destination demands only the most powerful offerings brew it up put a piece of guinea pig skull llama foetuses amulets in the shape of humans and herbal alcohol its potency is increased by being offered in a shell carried to the mountains all the way from sea level book [Music] only after the mountain gods have been invoked and the offerings burnt can the next stage of my journey commence but tomorrow [Music] this is the hardest leg of all trekking high in the cold thin air we must pass through the cloud line on our way from your Ponca to incahuasi perched high in the punku yoke mountains you Pank is where we agreed to meet archaeologist Gary Ziegler so David espejo and I decide to strike out on our own leaving the porters to locate Gary's campsite whether in the Andes can change in moments this is called cloud forest for a good reason and it's not long before the drizzle starts they may have been among the greatest road builders of all time but maintenance in the Andes seems to have died out with the last Inca believe it or not this is going to meet the rider there are 400 years these things have all collapsed so all the time you just have to go straight up the hill [Music] the Inca also ripped up many of the volcanoes roads and pathways so the Spanish couldn't follow them especially if they led to an important place like in kawase [Music] our first glimpse it's still three hours away across a mist filled valley but in view at last for the Incas who tried to recreate their empire in the vilcabamba this was their equivalent of the Vatican their Mecca the place where the last of the Incas kept their most holy relics hidden in the clouds 4000 metres above sea level 13,000 vertical feet of rugged terrain has protected this most sacred of sites for centuries even when you're almost there climbing the carved steps leading to the top of the ridge is equivalent to taking the stairs to the top of the Empire State Building six hours after leaving the porters we finally arrive and right on cue the Sun comes out and this is where they think that the golden disc of the Sun came looks like this looks like a place here in kawase is a testament to the decline and fall of the Inca Empire swallow the haggis you know in there become a moment of rage for nearly 500 years the Incas had ruled most of South America from Cusco the richest and most fabulous city of the Americas [Music] it took the Spanish only a few short years to reduce them from mighty palaces to this humble temple but at least it remained undisturbed the conquistadors never got here [Music] you know it doesn't surprise me that the Spanish didn't get up here their horses couldn't have walked up and with all that body armor would have been impossible it also doesn't surprise me that Bingham didn't get up here because this really is a hell of a hike what is surprising is that the Incas got up here at all and built this place no one really knows if incahuasi ever housed the golden disc no one's ever found it but they chose its location for a very good reason we can see the reflection over there yeah that Lake that's a wire rope to see over there but this is why it was built here yes so see the clouds not covering this but when it clouds clears you can be able to see the reflection of that wire rock in the lake so that's I think that's why they the the beliefs of people here know that the Inca turned into into this wire rock already games like a sacred that's my reason why they build up this temple here I can see location because of the nature of the terrain the valley Inca was he sits above is nearly always filled with cloud however it generally clears for a short while around midday when it does you can see a tiny Lake reflecting the white stone outcrop to the Inca this was sacred geography at its most potent [Music] a two-man pilgrimage over and we're in luck the porters have allocated Gary's camp Gary's been here a couple of days and he's already probed into the jungle when they really are requests of camino inca yeah in Contra semana pasada Gary's an old-school Explorer one of the last of a dying breed a modern-day Hiram Bingham who's devoted his life hoping locate Peru's lost cities so what we plan to do is to go up to about this level of altitude it's gonna be above 3000 I'm guessing about 36 3700 meters and then we're gonna we're gonna clear trails and Lane look Brenda this is what I've come all this way to experience the chance to find one of the Incas lost cities the thought of it affects us all no one's been the atmosphere is electric pretty sure that we're gonna find something significant [Music] and find something we did like hiram bingham 90 years before us we're about to hack our way through some of the densest jungle on earth and enter another of the Incas lost cities [Music] burro's vilcabamba region is home to some of the densest jungle on the planet this is the domain of the Puma the scorpion and the deadly Bushmaster Viper but right now they're the least of my worries traveling in this jungle is all the bugs that get you I've actually got one a really fierce one called the turmoil kaanchi which translates to make the Puma cry and I'll tell you what a bite you really does I'm on my way from the pinku York Mountains to lesser Sparta in central Peru but before we can go anywhere we must cross the sacred vilcanota river [Music] the vilcabamba is cut off on all sides by rivers that's what made it such a perfect stronghold for the Inca [Music] and while getting across is one thing getting out is quite another [Music] and it's not just me there's quite an art to keeping this thing steady on trial and the quarters are sure food as they come but even they found the river crossing challenging the climb to the ruins is tough a one-in-ten incline PACA trail out here one day and six months later it's gone reclaimed by the jungle little wonder cities and temples still remain hidden from view [Music] after four hours of steady marching a glimpse of a wall then another then a watercourse and suddenly it seems as if the jungle is cloaking buildings everywhere it's amazing look at this wall can you believe this what have we found in amazement we push forward through the overgrown streets and into buildings long ruined well that goes on and on but monks like this it's hard to know what to say David look at look at this window this is definitely inca I keep going David daily pointless without a yard that's gone Gary tells reporters to take a break while we try to work out the extent of our find and wonder they never found it I mean it's totally covered in jungle I don't know what to say I don't have the foggiest cuz well you see never said anything that's big that's the biggest thing you found I think it is I have no idea the extent of it Wow that's the that's the milk of no de river this is typically income because I build on views like this yeah the river was one of the most sacred object the vilcanota was the milk of Maya the the earthly representation of the Milky Way my most important things to the Inka this is really our guns whoo this could well be a temple to the river and I'll bet up in the clouds I'll bet we're looking exactly at the I speak Veronica which was also very important so this could be a really magical yeah yeah we don't know what we've got we're just we're gonna get the guys up here and clear it and see if we have time to see what else is around us there's got to be more well it's gonna bright okay let's take a better I'm about wipe down how about you but when you've got ruins to clear brakes don't last long [Music] at first we put our backs into it [Music] then is the worst of the undergrowth it's cleared we used up being careful not to damage anything [Music] and gradually the building starts to take shape [Music] most covered walls see daylight for the first time in centuries before too long the jungle starts to give up its secrets [Music] for centuries the cities of the Incas disappeared from view like Atlantis El Dorado and shangri-la they became places of legend sought-after never uncovered you know one of the odd things about Hiram Bingham was that when he came and discovered these sites he knew nothing about archaeology and he traveled around with this book which is the Royal Geographical society's hints to travelers it's got everything you need to know about discovering an ancient site if you happen to like we've just done even got a little ruler thing is I know nothing about this of course but Gary does so I'm relying totally on him and not the book but it seems our euphoria is premature we are not the first as we'd hoped Gary Ziegler's identified it as the town of Supper marker a place noted but never visited by Hiram Bingham in fact it's almost never been visited at all and certainly never been filmed the Incas may be long gone but these walls still stand in mute witness to the glory of the greatest empire of the ancient Americas I wonder what may lie hidden and forgotten here lost gold the sweat of the Sun as the Incas called it maybe even the Golden Disk itself I had set out from the other side of the planet to find such a place now it will be for others to take on the painstaking work of exploration [Music] one day I'll come back when Gary Ziegler and others have private secrets from the stars for now though it's enough just to know that there are places like this still waiting to be found and that is what always keeps me going on my journeys to the ends of the earth [Music] [Music] [Applause]

Channel: TRACKS

Views: 558,711

Rating: 4.6814017 out of 5

Keywords: TRACKS, tracks travel channel, tracks travel, History, Documentary Movies - Topic, history documentary, documentary history, ancient history, human sacrifice, history channel documentary, national geographic, lost city, history of the world, timeline documentary, inca empire, inca roads, machu picchu, peru history, peru history documentary

Id: qNNTkdVGpHo

Length: 50min 23sec (3023 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 10 2019