num_pages: 288
description: The Andes form the backbone of South America. Irradiating from Cuzco--the symbolic navel of the indigenous world--the mountain range was home to an extraordinary theocratic empire and civilization the Incas who built stone temples roads palaces and forts. The clash between Atahualpa the last Inca and the illiterate conquistador Pizarro between indigenous identity and European mercantile values has forged Andean culture and history for the last 500 years.Jason Wilson explores the 5000-mile chain of volcanoes deep valleys and upland plains revealing the Andes' mystery inaccessibility and power through the insights of chroniclers scientists and modern-day novelists. His account starts at sacred Cuzco and Machu Picchu moves along imagined Inca routes south to Lake Titicaca La Paz Potos and then follows the Argentine and Chilean Andes to Patagonia. It then moves north through Chimborazo Quito and into Colombia along the Cauca Valley up to Bogot and east to Caracas.Looking at the literature inspired by the Andes as well as its turbulent history this book brings to life the region's spectacular landscapes and the many ways in which they have been imagined.
language: English
title: The Andes: a Cultural History
publisher: Oxford University Press