Treasure of the Llanganatis

The Treasure of the Llanganatis refers to a huge sum of worked gold and other treasures supposedly hidden deep within the Llanganatis mountain range of Ecuador by the Inca general Rumiñahui.

In 1532 Francisco Pizarro founded the town of San Miguel de Piura and began the conquest of the Inca Empire. Later in the same year, he captured the Inca Atahualpa at Cajamarca. Atahualpa, seeing that the Spaniards cherished gold above all, promised to fill a room with gold in exchange for his freedom. Pizarro agreed to do this, although he likely had no intention to ever let Atahualpa leave. Before the room could be filled with gold, Pizarro's distrust of Atahualpa, and his influence over the many remaining Inca warriors, caused him to have the Inca garroted on July 26 1533.

The Inca general Rumiñahui was on his way to Cajamarca with an estimated 750 tonsFact|date=February 2007 of worked gold for the ransom when he learned that Atahualpa had been murdered. He returned to Ecuador and is believed to have had the treasure hauled up into the Llanganatis mountain range and buried. Rumiñahui continued fighting against the Spanish, and though he was captured and tortured, he never revealed the location of the treasure.

Many have searched for the treasure and many have come to unfortunate ends resulting in the belief in a curse related to the treasure. The treasure was popularized in the English-speaking world when the Botanist Richard Spruce discovered [http://staff-struck.freehostia.com/treasure/derrotero.html Valverde's Derrotero] and a map drawn by an Ecuadorian by the name of Don Atanasio Guzman, and published this information in the "Journal of Royal Geographical Society" in 1860.

External links and references

* [http://www.amazon.com/Sweat-Sun-Tears-Moon-Chronicle/dp/0803279809 Peter Lourie, "Sweat of the Sun, Tears of the Moon: A Chronicle of an Incan Treasure (Paperback)".]
* [http://staff-struck.freehostia.com/treasure/index.html Information on the Llanganatis treasure]