The Tomb Raider series is closely related to the history of the pre-Columbian civilizations of South America. While 99% of the famous Tomb Raider’s adventures are based on the legend and fantasy of the screenwriters, they can inspire the study of real history. In this article, we will talk about the lost cities of the Incas and their predecessors that Lara Croft visited.
The last stronghold of the Inca empire and the beginning of the path of Lara Croft
The original Tomb Raider was released in 1996. The game was dedicated to the search for artifacts of the legendary Atlantis, the first of which was waiting for Lara Croft among the ruins of the Inca empire. How exactly an object from Greek legends ended up in the Andes is a million dollar question. However, we are more interested in the place of action – the mysterious city of Vilcabamba.
It is believed that Vilcabamba was founded by the Inca supreme ruler Manco Inca Yupanqui during his retreat after an unsuccessful siege in 1536 of Cuzco, the former capital of the empire captured by the Spaniards. The city was located in an inaccessible mountainous area covered with jungle. The territory was wild and uninhabited, inconvenient even for local residents, and practically impassable for the conquistadors.
This advantage allowed the Incas to rebuild a whole city, which became the new and last capital of their state. From there, they fought against the invaders for over 30 years. In part, this was facilitated by the fact that the Europeans were busy plundering the country, and part of this time the peoples were in a fragile peace. In 1572, the conquistadors fought their way to the last stronghold of the empire, destroyed Vilcabamba and executed Sapa Inca Tupac Amara. For comparison, it took the Spaniards about three years to conquer Cuzco and the rest of the empire.
The location of Vilcabambu and its very purpose – to be a refuge for the Incas – played a funny joke with historians. It is still not known exactly where the city was located and which of the discovered ruins were the last capital of the Inca empire. Some scholars believed that on the site of Vilcabamba there is now Machu Picchu, but now the most popular theories are that the city was where the ruins of Espiritu Pampa or Choquequirao stand.
Facts about the conquest of the Inca Empire by Spain:
The conquest of the Inca empire was led by the conquistador Francisco Pizarro, whose expedition numbered about 200 people. Moreover, most of them were infantrymen. In the detachment there were only a few dozen horsemen, a few arquebusiers and a pair of artillery pieces.
Despite the fact that in some sources the Inca state is described as almost idyllic, internal strife played a significant role in the conquest. Without the help of Indian tribes dissatisfied with the rule of the Incas, who made up the majority of the Spanish army, the conquest would not have taken place.
The diseases brought by them also played into the hands of the Europeans: first of all, measles and smallpox, which knocked down the Incas.
In 1533, Pizarro captured the Inca ruler Atahualpa. In just a month, the Great Inca collected a huge ransom for his life: one room filled with gold (about six tons) and two with silver. Despite this, he was executed.
Like Cortez, Pizarro was married to the princesses of the conquered people who were converted to Catholicism. His eldest daughter from the first such marriage married his younger brother, while the rest of the children did not live up to adulthood.
Pizarro and many other conquistadors died a violent death due to civil strife caused by the division of the loot.
The rapid influx of large quantities of precious metals and exotic goods from the colonies first led to the “golden age” of the Spanish Empire, and then to huge inflation. There was even a saying: “Everything is expensive in Spain except silver.”
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The predecessors of the Inca civilization and the new legend of Lara Croft
In 2006, the Tomb Raider series received a soft relaunch with Tomb Raider: Legend. Interestingly, the new developer studio – Crystal Dynamics – decided to start its story in the Andes. However, this time, the scene of action was not the ruins of the Incas, but of the civilizations of South America that preceded them.
One of the central places in the plot of Tomb Raider: Legend is occupied by the state of Tiwanaku (also sometimes called Pukina), which was one of the largest in America in the first millennium AD. It occupied the territory of modern Bolivia, as well as partially bordering countries.
The capital of the state was the city of Tiwanaku of the same name, which during its heyday numbered tens of thousands of inhabitants. In Pukin’s language, the name of the settlement literally means “a stone in the center of the world.” Among the ruins of Tiwanaku, there are still traces of palaces and temples built from large pieces of monolithic stone, as well as a developed irrigation system.
Some scholars suggest that the tiwanaku’s expansion was more cultural. The high level of technical development that made it possible to build irrigation systems attracted immigrants from neighboring territories. In addition, cultural traces of tiwanaku, such as their pottery, sculpture and architecture, have been found in many peoples of South America, including the Incas.
1/8 Tiwanaku | Source: latinamericanstudies.org
The decline of the Tiwanaku civilization fell on the XI century AD. e. One of the popular theories explains the fall of the empire due to climatic changes in the region. A severe perennial drought led to the collapse of agriculture, depriving the state of its advantage over its subordinate and neighboring tribes. Despite this, other scientists believe that social problems and internal strife led to the collapse, and the drought came a little later and was only a concomitant factor.
In addition to Tiwanaku, in Tomb Raider: Legend you can visit another interesting place – the excavations in El Paraiso. It is located just a few kilometers from the capital of Peru, Lima, founded by the well-known conquistador Francisco Pizarro.
According to scientists, the El Paraiso complex was the economic or religious center of the civilization that inhabited Peru five thousand years ago. Science still does not know who exactly built El Paraiso and why it was subsequently abandoned. The settlement was inhabited for only a few hundred years, while the excavations did not reveal traces of any cataclysm.
1/3 El Paraiso | Source: terraeantiqvae.com
Other facts about cities:
In the story of Tomb Raider: Legend, El Paraiso was the tomb of the last queen of Tiwanaku. However, in fact, for the Tiwanaku and the Incas, these ruins were almost as ancient as they are for us. In addition, there is no evidence that the territory of present-day Lima was under the control of the Tiwanaku.
The capital of Peru, Lima, was originally called Ciudad de los Reyes – “City of Kings”, but this name did not catch on. Locals often named the city after the nearby Rimak River, which eventually turned into Lima.
Tiwanaku is located south of Lake Titicaca, and the Inca empire began on its northern coast. According to some hypotheses, the latter was founded by natives of Tiwanaku.
Unlike El Paraiso from Tomb Raider: Legend, there are no underground chambers in the actual complex. However, excavations are still ongoing – in 2013, archaeologists discovered a new temple among the ruins.
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