Tom Holland

They don't drive the Spanish out.

There's no reason to doubt that they do greet them as liberators.

The Spanish accounts are buzzing with excitement at the beauty and wealth of Cusco.

So Pedro Pizarro, Pedro Sancho, these accounts of the storehouses...

bursting with stuff with cloaks with gold with weapons with shields all the goods that are manufactured in this country says pedro sancho you know they can't believe the warehouse is full of stuff because there's no equivalent for this in europe the central government doesn't just pile up stuff in great warehouses and have it hanging around in its capital and then of course the temples they're the things they've really come for so cuzco's temples were full of relics

ornaments, holy objects from other temples.

Because basically, if the Incas conquered you, they would demand some of your stuff as a sort of hostage for good behaviour.

And would this stuff be gold?

Often it would be gold, of course, yes.

It would be gold or silver.

Of course, the thing they've really come to see is the Temple of the Sun, the Koli Kancha, which is the thing we heard about right at the beginning.

Now, the wall plates have already been taken to use as Atahualpa's ransom, but the place is still absolutely stuffed with gold.

So one of the conquistadors, Diego de Trujillo, wrote, As we entered, Vilac Umu, who was their high priest, cried, How dare you enter here?

Anyone who enters here has to fast for a year beforehand and must enter barefoot and bearing a load.

Which is true.

This is what you had to do.

It's your kind of ritual thing.

But we paid no attention to what he said and went in.

I mean, presumably this is all through interpreters.

I mean, it's interesting, isn't it, that a lot of the Spaniards, when they come to these temples, describe them as mosques.