The Mind Creative JULY 2014 | Page 37

The Mind Creative March 2014 he had his half-brother executed after emerging victorious in a fratricidal war, and seizing the other half of the empire which had been bequeathed to his brother by their late father, the Inca king. A panoramic view of the Machu Picchu ruins From Lima we flew to Cuzco, the “historical capital of Peru”, situated at an elevation of 3,400 meters, on UNESCO’s World Heritage Site list since 1983. It was the capital of the Inca Empire from the 13th century to 1533, when Spanish occupation put an end to the empire. Through both conquest and peaceful assimilation, at its height the Inca Empire incorporated a large part of western South America, around the Andean mountain range. Centered in Peru, it included large parts of modern Ecuador and Bolivia, northwest Argentina, north and central Chile, and a small part of southern Colombia. 37