Ancient Inca

High in the Andes mountains of Peru lies the sacred valley of the Incas. The water that flows through its valley descends into the Amazon River thousand of kilometers away. Here at a source of the Amazon the Inca remember the story of the first men.

Inca Myth of the First Men

At the beginning, all was darkness. The great God who gave the world the vital breath placed a race of giants there. This God, Wiracocha, instructed them to live in peace, so they may serve and know him forever. But they became proud and greedy.

A great flood (‘unu pachacuti” or “water that changed the world”) swept over them and most of them perished. The waters then returned to their previous level.

God appointed a tall, stern survivor to wander through the Andes until he reached the sacred valley. Here he prophesied the arrival of the Inca. At Ollantaytambo he left his knowledge, which he engraved on his staff for the people who would come.

First City of the Inca People

These first Inca walked north up into the sacred valley of the Inca along the banks of the sacred river.
At Ollantaytambo they built their first dwellings, at a site they called the House of the Dawn. Although the tall stern prophet had gone back to his land across the sea, they remembered what he looked like, and later carved their memory in stone. Middle East.