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The episode features footage of Inca architecture and discusses historical accounts, such as the treasure hidden in a lost city and a ship reportedly lost at sea, while acknowledging that the full extent of the treasure remains unknown.
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00:00The wealth of a once great nation has been just out of reach for 400 years.
00:08It has inspired the search for Inca treasure.
00:20It is believed that somewhere in the high mountains of Peru lies wealth beyond imagining.
00:26Gold, the lost treasure of a great empire.
00:33The empire was called Tawantinsia, kingdom of the Inca.
00:39White men called it something else.
00:42For them, it was El Dorado.
00:45They found that the fabled cities of gold were real.
00:49But if the mountains could speak, they would tell a sad story.
00:54A story of lust and greed and treachery.
00:59But men have not learned to read the wind or the cry of great birds that soar over lost kingdoms.
01:07The secret is safe for a while yet.
01:12The green world between the peaks has not given up the treasure of the Incas.
01:20Men still search.
01:23Some out of love for the past.
01:26Some out of love for gold.
01:31Now the in search of cameras come closer than men have been before to the heart of the mystery of the great Inca treasure.
01:38The wealth of a once great nation has been just out of time.
01:56The wealth of a once great nation has been just out of reach for 400 years.
02:11It has inspired the search for Inca treasure.
02:15This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture.
02:24The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanation.
02:28But not necessarily the only ones to the mysteries we will examine.
02:33The great spine of the Andes Mountains accents one of the most diverse environments in the world.
02:45It is a land of many wonders which has attracted the curious and the greedy for centuries.
02:52For some there is wealth enough in the remnants of the Western Hemisphere's first great civilization.
03:02For others pottery shards and broken masonry are not enough.
03:08They seek the precious yellow metal called gold.
03:14The mountains and jungles of Peru have provided an irresistible lure for centuries.
03:19There's the romance of far away places and people with exotic customs.
03:23The feeling of being in a Shangri-La somehow cut off from the crush of too many people in too little time.
03:30There's another ingredient in this appealing mix.
03:33The promise of treasure beyond imagining.
03:36It's a promise that has touched off wars and launched brave men on great adventures.
03:44The great city of the Incas was Cusco.
03:46It lives on even though the empire it gave birth to is gone.
03:51The streets of Cusco are full of the modest sounds of commerce now.
03:56Once they echoed to the marching feet of an imperial army.
04:00An army which enforced the will of God kings on 12 million subjects.
04:04The people of Cusco have endured.
04:09They are descendants of a race which conceived, conquered, then lost to a handful of Spaniards.
04:17One of the world's most remarkable empires.
04:20Yet, relatively little is known of the roots of this remarkable people.
04:25The ruined Inca fortress of Saxawaman is testimony to the Inca genius for building.
04:35Strong backs needed to hold great weight were conscripted from conquered peoples.
04:43The massive masonry was perfectly tooled, built to last forever.
04:47Thousands of artists labored directly for the state to embellish the palaces of priests and princes.
05:01The Inca excelled at engineering and advanced methods of irrigation and crop management.
05:06Even in death, the Inca were a proud and disciplined race.
05:23At the National Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology in Lima,
05:27Dr. Edward Verstelen and his colleagues inspect an Incan mummy.
05:31Much of what is known about Inca civilization comes from studying graves.
05:40The things a person considered important in death say much about how he lived his life.
05:45To touch things that were precious to someone of another time, another world.
05:54It is an irreverence born of a need to know.
05:59In the quest for knowledge, investigators must compete with those whose quest is for riches.
06:00There is a thriving black market in Inca gold and artifacts.
06:01This Inca might have lived in the world as in the world in the world.
06:02This Inca might have lived in the world of the world.
06:03To touch things that were precious to someone of another time, another world.
06:06It is an irreverence born of a need to know.
06:10In the quest for knowledge, investigators must compete with those whose quest is for riches.
06:20There is a thriving black market in Inca gold and artifacts.
06:26This Inca might have lived in glorious times
06:31He might have seen an empire created in less than 30 years
06:36Or witnessed the arrival in 1527
06:39Of a Spaniard named Francisco Pizarro
06:42That arrival was barely a hundred years
06:45From the Inca's explosion of conquest
06:47But for the empire
06:49That was all the time there was to be
06:52In one of the most amazing events of history
06:57The great and mighty of the Inca nation
07:00Would vanish into the jungle
07:01Driven into oblivion
07:03By a hundred eighty men in rusting Spanish armor
07:07Hiram Bingham was one of many
07:11Who would devote part of his life
07:12To following the blurred trail left by the Inca
07:15The young Yale archaeologist and explorer
07:20Entered the Andes in 1910
07:22He believed that the Inca must have built another great city
07:27Once they abandoned Cusco to the Spanish
07:29Bingham knew that Pizarro had held the Inca king Araujulpa captive
07:34And that an enormous ransom in gold
07:37Was raised to meet Pizarro's demands
07:39But Pizarro had the Inca king murdered
07:42Before the gold was safely in his hands
07:44Bingham might have reasoned
07:47That to find the lost city of the Incas
07:49Was to find the gold that had eluded Pizarro
07:51The explorer devoted more than a year to his quest
07:56Then, one insufferably hot day in July 1911
08:05Bingham thought he'd found the mythical city
08:08As Bingham approached the ghost city
08:17That would be called Machu Picchu
08:18He was convinced that his long search had paid off
08:22That he had truly found the last capital of the Incas
08:26He found temples
08:33But no hoard of treasure
08:35Bingham wrote that he had never seen such exquisite masonry
08:44Temples open to the sky
08:47Undoubtedly constructed for sun worship
08:50Bingham was sure he had discovered the retreat
08:57Where the last Inca kings ruled
08:59In the sunset years of their empire
09:02The road Bingham traveled to the discovery of Machu Picchu
09:10Was a hard one
09:11The world celebrated his prize
09:13And the young explorer became one of the decade's most appealing heroes
09:17But Bingham was wrong
09:20Machu Picchu was not the last capital of the Incas
09:24The legendary Vilcabamba
09:26Like so much about the Inca civilization
09:30And its celebrated riches
09:31The truth remained just out of reach
09:34What was needed was other men of courage and vision
09:37To pick up where Bingham left off
09:40With his remarkable discovery of Machu Picchu
09:42To pursue his dream deeper into the Andean wilderness
09:46At the San Marcos University in Lima, Peru
09:51Are the offices of a world-renowned authority on Inca history
09:54He is professor Edmundo Guillen
09:57And he has devoted his adult life
10:00To solving the riddles that perplexed earlier scholars like Bingham
10:03On June 24th, 1976
10:06Guillen's work would make headlines around the world
10:09And he in search of cameras would be there
10:12To record his remarkable discovery
10:15In a quiet valley of the Rio Pompacona
10:22Northeast of Cusco
10:24The stage is set for one of the great modern feats of exploration
10:28It is 1976
10:32And men have traveled to the moon in spaceships
10:36But to travel here means saddle sores
10:39Blistered feet
10:40And aching muscles
10:41For Edmundo Guillen
10:45It is a small price to pay
10:47Together with ten colleagues from Peru and Poland
10:53He is setting out on a great adventure
10:56Guillen's mission is of more than simple academic curiosity
11:09He is out to recapture a place and a moment in history
11:14And if he can, to set the record straight on the final chapter of the Inca Empire
11:20The popular belief is that Pizarro's murder of the Inca king Atahualpa
11:32Brought the old empire instantly to its knees
11:35Guillen thinks that murder was just the beginning of the end for the Inca
11:50Once over the first ridge from Pampacona
11:54The trek begins in earnest
11:56Hiram Bingham saw this country before Edmundo Guillen was born
12:08He gloried in its breathtaking beauty
12:11And struggled valiantly to unlock its mysteries
12:14But Bingham did not have the blood of Incas in his veins
12:18Guillen does
12:20It is the culmination of years of research and planning
12:29And of some extraordinary luck
12:32In the Spanish archives at Seville
12:34Guillen discovered letters written by soldiers of the king sent to battle the Inca
12:39They described Vilcabamba in detail
12:42Including the neighboring geography
12:44Guillen knows that the secret is within his grasp
12:49One Spanish soldier wrote
12:56When I entered Vilcabamba, the city was desolate
13:00The palace of the Inca burned
13:02The food storages sacked
13:05The letter was dated June 24, 1572
13:09Guillen vows he will re-enter Vilcabamba
13:14On the same day of the same month
13:16Each tree along the route could be a signpost
13:24Each valley might be the one described in letters written by Spanish soldiers
13:30The painstaking research is paying off for Guillen and his band
13:43There are minor discoveries to be made almost every day of the long trek
13:47Tantalizing portents of what may lie beyond the next stream
13:52Over the next ridge
13:54Along a river named on no map
14:00Guillen and his band are intrigued by what seems to be a cave entrance
14:04A crypt is discovered
14:15Its entrance long hidden by tons of debris
14:19Guillen believes it may be the grave of an important person
14:25Perhaps a member of Inca royalty
14:28It is clear from the discovery of the crypt
14:33That the end of Guillen's quest cannot be far away
14:36He will return another day
14:40To excavate the site
14:41Great effort is still required
14:53If the last chapter to the Inca empire
14:56Is not to be written from the memoirs of some long dead Spanish priest
14:59Who may have been angered
15:01Because proud savages worship the sun
15:04There are only two days left
15:08If Guillen is to make his rendezvous with history on schedule
15:11It is here
15:31Just as Guillen knew it would be
15:34Vilcabamba
15:37At last
15:38For everyone involved
15:40It is the culmination of a great dream
15:43It is 10 a.m. June 24th
16:04Precisely 403 years have passed
16:08Since soldiers of Spain sacked this city
16:11Edmundo Guillen has kept the promise he made to himself
16:16Vilcabamba is retaken
16:19It is all here
16:24The superb Inca masonry
16:27Combined with a light and airy style building
16:30Open to the sky
16:32It all started in the valley called Cusco
16:37For a century
16:39Kings called Inca ruled from a city
16:41That was the marvel of pre-European civilization
16:44In the Americas
16:45And there were the great fortresses
16:50Like Saxuaman
16:51The long retreat of the Inca
16:56Began with the coming of the Spaniards
16:58But the glory was real
17:01Even as they fought the Spaniards for control of their lush valleys
17:05The Inca had time to build magnificent mountain retreats like Machu Picchu
17:10Guillen believes he has at last discovered the real thing
17:21Larger by far than Machu Picchu
17:24From records left by two Spanish friars
17:31Who visited Vilcabamba in 1570
17:33Guillen begins to reconstruct the city in his mind
17:37The roofing tiles he finds
17:44Are evidence that the city was built late in the Incan imperial era
17:47The Incas traditionally covered their buildings with thatch
17:52The Spanish introduced tile
17:55There will be time for only a brief survey of his remarkable discovery
18:04Later others will come to assist with the detailed excavation necessary
18:10To piece together the last years of Inca greatness
18:13The trained eye finds much evidence
18:20Which helps date the construction of the long hidden city
18:23Almost everything Guillen finds
18:27Seems to have been built about the same time
18:29He feels this is a clear indication
18:32That Vilcabamba was hastily constructed
18:35As a refuge from encroaching Spanish soldiers
18:38Yet the city's waterworks
18:42Are as sophisticated as any in Cusco
18:45After 400 years
18:49They still work
18:50The city was carefully planned
18:58And could have withstood a long siege by any army
19:01There was the Temple of the Sun
19:06Perhaps as grand as any at Machu Picchu
19:09Guillen finds evidence that it was faced with solid gold
19:14Sun temples were both centers of worship
19:19And astronomical observatories
19:21The placement of stones
19:23Aided the Inca in studying the movement of stars
19:26Their knowledge of astronomy was remarkably advanced
19:30The Inca were remarkable builders
19:34Yet they never standardized their tools or techniques
19:37They were familiar with higher mathematics
19:40And never invented the wheel
19:42Like everything else Guillen has learned about the Inca
19:47Vilcabamba will probably raise as many questions as it answers
19:51The layout of the city seems to match the descriptions Guillen uncovered in the Seville archives
20:00The discovery clearly puts Inca history in a different light
20:05The Inca did not give up their empire lightly
20:10Guillen believes
20:11Time and their gods were against them
20:14And they lost it all after a struggle Guillen estimates lasted some 40 years
20:20Still
20:22It is good to be home
20:24For the explorers
20:52The occasion of Vilcabamba's discovery was both joyful and solemn
20:56After more than 400 years
21:04Guillen is reclaiming Vilcabamba in the name of the Inca people
21:08When Edmundo Guillen marched into Vilcabamba the gold was gone
21:20He believes the Inca may have dumped it into one of dozens of nearby lakes
21:24To prevent it from falling into Spanish hands
21:27But Guillen discovered a treasure nevertheless
21:29His was the treasure of satisfaction and achievement
21:33The treasure of writing a new chapter
21:35To the history of a proud and brilliant people called Inca
21:40Within weeks, Guillen's discovery would make headlines throughout South America and the world
21:48Ahead lay many months of hard work
21:53Excavating the ruins of Vilcabamba
21:56Seeking clues to other unresolved mysteries
22:00About the Inca
22:02For now, Guillen could rest secure in the knowledge
22:07That he had made answers possible
22:10To see what happened
22:14Of the stories of Vilcabamba
22:18The first story of Vilcabamba
22:20Tuesday of Vilcabamba
22:23Succeed to the military
22:25But near the end of the tunnel
22:26But not guilty of their aliexing
22:29The first story of Vilcabamba
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