Bird's eye view of a plush valley

Inca gold may be hidden in the Llanganates mountain range in Ecuador.

Ammit/Alamy Stock Photo

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NCSS: Culture • Time, Continuity, and Change • People, Places, and Environments • Global Connections

GEOGRAPHY

Where Is the Lost Inca Gold?

Nearly 500 years ago, an Inca general hid hundreds of tons of gold to keep it from Spanish invaders. Are those riches somewhere in these mountains?  

Question: What features of the Inca Empire’s landscape may have helped keep the treasure hidden?

Empires of the Americas
Watch a video about ancient civilizations and empires that once thrived in Central and South America.
World map highlighting area of Inca Empire in South America

Jim McMahon/Mapman®

The year is 1533; the place is a steep mountain trail in South America’s Inca Empire. Sixty thousand Inca men trudge along, bent under heavy loads of gold. Guarding them are 12,000 soldiers. All are on a mission of utmost importance: to save the life of their emperor, Atahualpa (ah-tuh-WAHL-puh).

Hundreds of miles away, in the city of Cajamarca (kah-huh-MAR-kah), soldiers from Spain are holding Atahualpa prisoner. They have agreed to free himin exchange for enough gold to fill a large room.

Suddenly, a messenger arrives at the trail with terrible news: The emperor is dead! The Spanish soldiers have killed him.

In that moment, Rumiñahui (roo-me-NYAH-we), the Inca general leading the mission, makes a vow that will become the stuff of legend: No outsider will ever possess this goldbecause he will hide it where it will never be found.

Today, nearly 500 years later, the Inca treasure would be worth an estimated $5 billion. But its location remains one of history’s great mysteries.

Painting of an Inca Emperor

GL Archive/Alamy Stock Photo

Atahualpa was the 13th—and final—emperor of the Inca.

A Nation of Gold

The Inca civilization arose in the Andes Mountains in the 12th century. By Atahualpa’s time, the Inca Empire was the world’s largest nation, stretching from present-day Colombia to Chile (see "The Inca Empire" map, below). It was home to about 12 million people.

The Inca were skilled farmers and engineers. They constructed a network of roads and bridges connecting the vast empire. Master stonemasons built complex mountaintop cities and fortresses.

Slideshow
What might your life have been like in the early 16th century?

Much of their territory wasand still isrich in minerals, including gold, copper, silver, and zinc. The gold that miners dug from the earth had immense value to the Incabut not as a sign of wealth. To them, the bright metal was the sweat of Inti, their sun god. Craft workers fashioned it into sacred objects: jeweled cups, masks of the sun god, and statues.

Word of such wonders spread. Around 1526, Francisco Pizarro, a Spanish soldier, was exploring South America’s Pacific coast. He heard stories of Inca gold and saw some of it with his own eyes. Where he came from, a small pile of gold would turn a pauper into a wealthy man. A large pile could raise a wealthy man to great power and privilege.

Pizarro claimed Inca territoryand its goldfor Spain. In 1532, he arrived at Cajamarca to tell Atahualpa so. When the emperor rejected Spain’s claim, Pizarro’s soldiers ambushed him.

Pizarro had fewer than 200 men, while Atahualpa had tens of thousands camped outside the city. But the Spanish had guns. Armed only with clubs and spears, the Inca were overpowered. The emperor was taken hostage. Rumiñahui and others raced to gather the gold to free him.

The Hunt for Hidden Treasure

Image of three Inca golden artifacts

Deco/Alamy Stock Photo (Relic); Charles Caratini/Sygma via Getty Images (Statue); Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images (Cup)

Treasures like these gold pieces made by Inca craft workers may be hidden in the Llanganates mountain range in Ecuador.

Rumiñahui had collected about 750 tons of gold. Where could he have stashed so much treasure?

He and his men had been traveling south from the city of Quito. Some historians think they hid it nearby, in the Llanganates (yahn-gah-NAH-teez) mountain range of the Andes.

About 50 years after the emperor’s death, a Spanish man named José Valverde claimed to know the gold’s location. He wrote that his father-in-law, an Inca, had shown him the site as a wedding gift. Valverde became wealthy, which seemed to verify his story. But no one who followed his directions could find the gold.

In 1886, a Canadian treasure hunter named Barth Blake also claimed to have found it. He wrote ofthousands of gold and silver pieceslife-size human figures made out of beaten gold and silver, birds, animals, cornstalks, gold and silver flowers,” and much more. Too much, Blake claimed, forthousands of mento move. Apparently intending to return, Blake left Ecuadorthen mysteriously disappeared.

Modern adventurers have taken up the search, but new technology is of little use in the Llanganates. The region ranges from about 4,000 feet above sea level to nearly 15,000 feet. Starting at about 8,000 feet, air becomes very thin, meaning it has less oxygen. Even experienced climbers find it hard to breathe and will get sick if they don’t give their bodies enough time to adjust.

Also, it’s often cold, and very wet: The Llanganates gets up to 157 inches of rain of a year. And when thick fog moves in, as it frequently does, it’s impossible to see more than a few feet in any direction. Broken bones from slips and falls are a constant risk. So are cuts from the sharp-edged grasses growing thereor accidents with machetes, the large knives needed to hack a path through dense vegetation.

An Enduring Secret

After Atahualpa’s death, the Inca resisted Spain’s claim on their land. As Spanish troops poured in from the north, Rumiñahui returned to Quito to help defend the city. About a year later, in 1534, he was captured. Even under torture, Rumiñahui refused to reveal where he had put the gold. He went to his death rather than betray the secret.

Spain divided the Inca Empire into colonies ruled by Spanish governors. But revolts continued to break out until 1572, when the last Inca leader was defeated.

Today descendants of the Inca still live in the region, mainly in Ecuador and Peru. Rumiñahui is remembered as a hero. And the mystery of where he hid the treasure lives on.

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