Friday, December 11, 2009

Lost Inca Gold, Ancient Mystery

The feeling of desire and anxiousness leads to the discovery of the legendary Inca gold. It is guarded by remote, mist-veiled mountains in central Ecuador. Deep inside the Llanganates Mountain range between the Andes and the Amazon, a fabulous Inca hoard hidden from Spanish conquistadors is said to be hidden. Pizarro made a deal to release Atahualpa in return for a ton of gold, but the Spaniard later changed his mind on the deal. He had the Inca king murdered before the last and largest part of the deal had been delivered. Instead, the gold was buried in a secret mountain cave. And there the legend has remained, daring others to discover it. The hidden guide of those who have tried is Valverde, a Spaniard about 50 years after Atahualpa's death who was known to have become very wealthy after finding the gold thanks to his Indian In laws. When he died, he left written directions to its location, the Derroterro de Valverde. The gold trail was very unclear in the 1850s, when English botanist Richard Spruce traveled to Ecuador to find the cinchona tree, the seeds of which were used to produce the antimalarial drug quinine. When Spruce finally returned to Britain, he reported that he had uncovered Valverde's guide and a related map, made by a man named Atanasio Guzman.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/guides/history/ancient/lost-inca-gold.html

Marvin G.
Period 3

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