Dominic Sandbrook

So Atahualpa says, well, I can tell you two places in particular where you'll get gold.

And they're two of the most sacred temples in the empire.

So one of them is the Shrine and Oracle of Pachacamac, which is near the coast, near what's now Lima.

And the other is the Sun Temple of Coricancha in Cusco.

I think both of these you mentioned, Tom, in your excellent Christopher Plummer reading.

Mm-hmm.

And the reason Atahualpa wants to surrender these two places in particular goes back to the point about the Civil War.

So Cusco, the Sun Temple there, the most famous temple and religious site in the Andean world.

Why does he want to surrender that?

Because he's probably never even been to Cusco.

Cusco is his brother's city, his brother's heartland.

Well, he was planning to wipe Cusco out, wasn't he?

Yeah, exactly.

So get the Spanish to do it for him.

Yeah.

He represents the north of this empire, not the south.

And he just thinks, well, this is a brilliant way of punishing Cusco for backing my brother.

Yeah.

I mean, it's like someone in Manchester saying, destroy London.

Exactly.