ALBERT LIN (VOICEOVER):
Quinsachata Volcano
last erupted only a
few thousand years ago.
AMELIA PEREZ TRUJILLO: This
is pumice, volcanic rock.
ALBERT LIN (VOICEOVER):
I head for the summit
with Peruvian archaeologist
Amelia Perez Trujillo.
We follow the flow of lava.
We're meeting my
LiDAR team at the top.
I'm looking for
evidence that this
was a sacred site for people
who were here before the Inca.
MAN: You guys ready to fly?
ALBERT LIN: Just about, yep.
MAN: OK.
Props up.
ALBERT LIN: These
are all troopers.
Right here, just
over that edge there.
Look at that.
WOMAN: [speaking spanish]
ALBERT LIN (VOICEOVER):
These suggest
that people were
burying their ancestors
close to a god-like event.
WOMAN: [speaking spanish]
ALBERT LIN: You can imagine
that when it erupted,
it must have sent wonder, awe,
just disbelief into the minds
of the people all around it.
WOMAN: [speaking spanish]
ALBERT LIN: All
the material went
that way, towards the city.
WOMAN: [speaking spanish]
ALBERT LIN: Incredible.
ALBERT LIN (VOICEOVER): The
lava stretches for over a mile.
At its base is a small
town called Raqch'i.
These must be the manmade
structures that I could
see on the satellite imagery.
WOMAN: [speaking spanish]
ALBERT LIN: This whole
area, all of these
were homes of people that
existed hundreds of years
before the Inca.
WOMAN: [speaking spanish]
ALBERT LIN: And they built
their homes next to a volcano.
Amazing.
(VOICEOVER) pre-Inca pilgrims
weren't the only ones
to have left their mark here.
Wow, it's incredible.
WOMAN: [speaking spanish]
ALBERT LIN: Amazing.
What was it for?
WOMAN: [speaking spanish]
ALBERT LIN: The
temple of Wiracocha.
I have a document that I found
from the Spanish Chronicles
WOMAN: [speaking spanish]
ALBERT LIN: It says when the
Inca ruler passed by this area,
he saw the shrine of Wiracocha.
The people told him the miracle
of fire that fell from the sky.
He decided that the
remembrance should be greater
and ordered the erection
of a large building.
This was done, and there
was no larger building
in the land of the Inca.
Kind of sends
shivers up your spine
when you read something that
was written, you know, in 1557,
and you're standing here looking
at it still standing today.
WOMAN: [speaking spanish]
ALBERT LIN (VOICEOVER): There
seems to be a pattern emerging.
The Inca incorporate aspects
of earlier belief systems
and make them theirs by
building bigger and better.
This is architecture of power,
just like at Machu Picchu.
