Mummies: Bodies Talk

From Cuzco, his capital in the high Andes, The Ninth Inka (Inca), Pachacuti, ruled his people. Later, an empire (building on Pachachuti's early conquests), would be called "Inca," (in English, "the ruler").

Once the largest civilization in "the new world," stretching north through Equador and extending south to Argentina, the Inca Empire flourished for about one hundred years (during the 15th and 16th centuries). When the Atahualpa Inka was kidnapped (and later killed), the kingdom fell (this is a video documentary) to gold-seeking Spanish Conquistadors, in the 16th century.

The life and times of the people remained largely unknown to the outside world since the Incas did not have a written language. Machu Picchu (Machupijchu), today the most famous settlement of the Inca Empire, remained hidden until a Yale archaeologist (Hiram Bingham) rediscovered it in 1911.

As the 20th century continued, scholars (seeking to learn more about the empire) found unexpected information in unanticipated places: Inca mummies were being located in Peru.