Boys and girls were selected, often as part of an annual tribute to the Inca state. Chosen children typically came from noble families hoping to gain political favor through these rituals.

The Inca language, religion, and trade network dominated the Andes. A man chewing coca in a pre-Columbian figure Photograph by DEA/Album Vast amounts of coca, regarded as sacred by the Inca ...

At over 6,000 metres, Mt Ampato is one of the highest mountains in Peru, and a place were the Inca used in one of their most dramatic and powerful religious ceremonies: human sacrifice.