Dominic Sandbrook

And the mad thing is, Kiskis says, okay, fair enough.

And his men fetch tools so that these Spanish guys with crowbars can take these giant gold plates off the walls of the temples.

Yeah, maybe.

I mean, I think the fact that he's a northerner definitely is a factor and he's commanding an occupying army.

But even so, he's part of the Inca world.

He believes in the cult of the sun.

He's part of that cosmological ecosystem.

But they tear it all down.

So these great plates, they're about two and a half feet long.

They weigh five pounds each.

They're beautifully decorated, we're told, with images of trees and flowers and things like that.

Solid gold.

The Spaniards tear it all down.

They get hundreds of porters to carry it back.

Of course, no wheels, no carts in Peru.

God for llamas.

Yeah.

And I mean, they have hundreds of porters carrying these things, literally like trudging across the mountains, carrying these great gold plates.

They've got these pallets basically loaded with gold and silver.

And when they get back to Cajamarca, Pizarro and the people in Cajamarca just can't believe their eyes.