Paititi

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The lost Inca city of Paititi and the hidden Inca treasures

Paititi refers to a hidden city of the Incas, located somewhere in the eastern jungles of Peru, possibly in the Amazonian area.

The city exists in legends, stories, has never been discovered.

One can rarely hear about it, since Machu Picchu and other attractions dwarf its importance.

In Quechuan Paititi means "Home of the Jaguar Father".

It is believed that large amounts of Inca treasures were hidden in the city to save them from the invading Spaniards.

Expeditions have been conducted by multiple explorers, adventurers into the depths of the dense Andean forests, some have unveiled hidden ruins, but nothing valuable enough, so far no one has ever come across any complex of high importance.

Some are still searching for it... From Peru's southeastern forests, down to Bolivia, even deep into the Brazilian Amazon.

The legend of Paititi and the lost Inca treasures...

After the Pizarro-led Spanish conquest in 1533, the last Inca fighters have retreated into the Vilcabamba Valley and conducted what we call today "guerilla warfare" against the invaders. The war lasted almost 40 years, after what the Spaniards finally managed to conquer and enter the Vilcabamba Valley. This happened in 1572.

Following the Spanish conquest of the last Inca capital of Vilcabamba, the last emperor, Túpac Amaru was captured and killed.

What we know from documents from that time is that when the Spaniards entered Vilcabamba, the Incas have already fled. It is said that the Incas, including the higher class have fled to the eastern rainforests. Which was possibly the rather flat Amazonian area of what is today eastern Peru of western Brazil.

In 2001, Italian archaeologist, Mario Polia has come across a Jesuit document in Rome, written in 1600 by missionary Andrea Lopez, who vividly describes a large city, rich in gold, silver and gemstones, located in a rainforest and called by its inhabitants "Paititi".

Andrea Lopez describes waterfalls and deep forests around the mysterious city. The information was presented in details to Pope Clement the 8th.

The Vatican is said to hold the exact location of Paititi a secret, even today. But of course, these are speculations.

There is no proof that the Paititi myth was taken seriously by the Vatican back in the 1600s and several lost cities have been found in the eastern part of Peru.

Sites like Machu Picchu, Llactapata, Vitcos, Choquequirao - the "Sacred Sister of Machu Picchu" and recently discovered Corihuayrachina are examples of quite recently discovered or rediscovered cities in the Andes... Lost worlds that lay hidden from our eyes under the cover of rainforests.

None of them proved to be Paititi, no large amounts of gold or silver were found. But the archaeological value of the findings is high enough.

The existence of such large complexes of buildings sounds encouraging. They're proof enough that substantial numbers of Incas inhabited the area.

How much truth lies in the Paititi legend?

There are many variations on the Paititi legend and throughout the centuries many of them have been distorted. Often, the white men invent additional elements to the stories, to make them sound more interesting. The western press always blows the legend up, making it sound like some sort of an Indiana Jones-type of thing.

Legends are not always based on true events. But there were a coupple of ones that proved to be true. One of the most interesting cases is that of the legend of Troy. A myth that the discoverer of Troy (German archaeologist, Heinrich Schliemann) heard as a child from his grandfather's stories. He became an archaeologist and started looking for it, of course other archaeologists thought he was nuts! [Sorry for the expression here...]

He finally found it and there it is today. It really paid off for Schliemann, because he took immense amounts of treasures, from precious stones to golden necklaces and took them back home to Germany, where he built himself a huge house in Berlin (you can visit it if you get there)...

The Paititi legend is newer, roughly less than 500 years old, while the city of Troy was destroyed 3.300 years ago by a huge earthquake.

Nevertheless, the Greek mythology had written basis and therefore provided us with solid proof, possible locations of the city. The Incas did not leave behind written details about Paititi.

Similarly to Troy, people have claimed to have seen "The Hidden City of the Incas" (Paititi), even Europeans.

But, Troy was located in a more accessible place, where few forests, any open fields were located, not far from the Mediterranean Sea in the western part of today's Turkey.

Paititi can be anywhere in a radius of about 500 km eastwards from the Sacred Valley towards Brazil and Bolivia. At least, this wide was the area where explorers have set out to discover the ruins. Paititi is less likely to be westwards from the Sacred Valley.

The Paititi legend sounds plausible for several reasons... Those of you who have some knowledge about the Incas will recognize important facts.

- The Incas had plenty of motives to hide their treasures form the occupying Spaniards

- For many years of conflict, the Incas have been hiding valuables from the conquistadores, they had all the time to find good places to hide the treasures

- Pizarro's forces have omitted many places, among which Machu Picchu, therefore Paititi could have remained undiscovered too

- The Inca Empire's territory was not fully uncovered by the Spaniards and still wasn't even until today, the forests are dense, there are many mountains and transportation is difficult

- At the time of the occupation, very few parts of the Inca Empire were known to the Spaniards, they came across important places like the capital Cuzco and believed that if they take Cuzco, the Empire will be fully under control, but they were wrong, the Incas retreated in other areas and fought guerilla wars for many more years

- When Atahualpa was Pizarro's prisoner, even under aggressive interrogation he was reluctant to admit that there were large amounts of treasures hidden somewhere. But periodically, as time was passing by, more and more threatened, he told the Spaniards about a few hidden places where gold and silver objects were deposited. Of course, Pizarro wanted more and more, it was never enough. Atahualpa was threatened to be killed, when he desperately asked to be freed and promised to fill up the room where he was held with gold as high as Pizarro could reach with his hand and twice that amount of silver. So the Inca ruler had ordered. It is said that Incas came from all corners of the Tahuantinsuyo bringing statues, pots, necklaces and other objects, mostly of gold.

Atahualpa was killed, despite the promise of Pizarro to let him go.

Ironically for the greedy Europeans, the Incas gave them poor quality gold. Much of the objects were alloys, mostly gold mixed with iron. This combination had very low value on the European market and they didn't' make too much money selling it.

Nobody knew exactly where the Incas came out from at Atahualpa's orders. The places were never discovered by the Spaniards. Certainly, there must have been more where they brought the treasures out from.

- The Spaniards only manage to occupy the Vilcabamba after about 50 years (Pizarro didn't get to see this, he died in 1541), where the last Inca leader, Túpac Amaru was killed. It is said that rest of the Incas have fled, hiding valuable objects from the Europeans.

- As presented above in details, missionary Andrea Lopez wrote a document about Paititi in the 1600, saying that he had been there, had seen it and met with the locals. The information as presented to Pope Clement the 8th and the document sits in Rome, until today.

It is less likely that the Vatican wasn't serious about it.

Even if Paititi doesn't exist, Andrea Lopez did believe in its existence.

The greedy European occupations who were looking for nothing else but material riches. As they found something, regardless of the objects' artistic value, they melted them into bars and sold them.

Difference between Paititi and the El Dorado legend...

The legend of Paititi must not be confused with the El Dorado legend.

Paititi refers to a lost city in Peru, while the El Dorado is not an Inca myth, but rather a Spanish rumours that has spread among conquistadores about a "Land of Gold" somewhere in the uplands of today's Colombia and Venezuela. It's important to mention that today's Colombia is much smaller than the one during the 16th-17th centuries.

The two legends are distinct have no direct link to each other.

However, laics and modern media often connect the two myths crating an "El Dorado - Lost City of the Incas" mix. Often other separate legends are mixed by laic writers and solidify as one "El Dorado" in the minds of readers. There are many myths that might seem similar, but have no real link between each other. The "El Dorado" and the "Lost City" legends are profoundly different both in contents and in sources...

The Paititi legend speaks about a hero called Inkarrí or Incarrí who is said to have founded Q'ero and Cuzco and then retreated into the Pantiacolla jungles, where he took refuge in the hidden city of Paititi.

The search for Paititi

At least several dozens of major expeditions have been conducted in the southwestern part of Peru, northern Bolivia (the Amazonian part) and the western tip of immense Brazil (the part that comes close to Peru's and Bolivia's borders).

Some of the most well known explorers that have set off on expeditions:

Carlos Neuenschwander Landa (Peruvian)-  medical doctor/explorer

Juan Carlos Polentini Wester (Argentinean) - Salesman priest/explorer

Gregory Deyermenjian (USA) - psychologist/explorer,

Paulino Mamani (Peruvian) - frontiersman/cartographer/explorer

Most of the time, the following areas are being explored, as possible locations:

- The border area between Bolivia and Brazil

- The eastern part of Peru, eastwards from the Vilcanota River