Dimensions
152 x 230 x 28mm
The Inca Empire, at its peak, was the largest kingdom on Earth. The Incas were known as master builders, fearsome warriors, and practitioners of human sacrifice. Yet in the year 1532, this mighty state was conquered, overnight, by fewer than 200 Spanish adventurers. How could this happen?
That question begins William Sullivan's brilliant and profound book. Sullivan's unraveling of the historical truth hidden in the myths of the Andes is a thrilling historical detective story. Clue by clue, Sullivan decodes the myths of the Incas to reveal that they embody an astoundingly thorough record of astronomical events, passed down orally by Andean shamans for over a thousand years.
In the fifteenth century, priest-astronomers read the sky and saw the signs of an apocalypse. So the Incas took a desperate gamble: if events in heavens could influence those on earth, perhaps the reverse was true. As Sullivan shows, their rituals of warfare and human sacrifice were nothing less than an attempt to stop time, to forestall the cataclysm that would sweep their world away.
