書的官方網站：
http://www.lastdaysoftheincas.com/

Amazon的購買連結：
http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Days-Incas-MacQuarrie/dp/0743260503/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_1

在去一個地方前先了解它的歷史會使旅程收穫更多，由其是到一些歷史悠久的地方，否則對著幾百年的遺跡，只能摸著那些幾經風雨的石頭，也不知道這些石頭為何這麼有名。

本來計劃在南美旅行開始前把這本書讀完，到出發前的一天還沒有開始讀，所以把書放進背包，利用等車搭夜車和晚上的休息時間，在旅途進行到Belize的時候終於把它讀完，然後就留給下一位有興趣的旅客。可以讀得這麼快，主要原因是他厚達一寸半，盡快讀完就可以減輕我的背包負擔。

此書讀起來像一本故事書，由Hiram Bingham發現Machu Picchu展開，再帶出究竟Machu Picchu是否印加最後的一個城市的問題，然後回到過去，順著時空把哥倫布和西班牙人到達中美洲南美洲，遇上當地印加文族，繼而想侵占他們的黃金和土地，有趣而仔細地記述下來，文字簡單流暢，故事像三國演義，令人不能放下。

在書中的印加帝國的興衰時間表，可以簡易快速地了解他們的歷史：

1492   Columbus lands in what is now called the Bahamas; this is the first of his four voyages to the New World

1502   Francisco Pizarro arrives on the island of Hispaniola

1502 – 1503   During his last voyage, Columbus explores the coasts of what will later be called Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama.

1513   Vasco Nunez de Balboa and Francisco Pizarro cross the Isthnus of Panama and discover the Pacific Ocean

1516   The future Inca emperor Manco Inca is born

1519 – 1521   Hernando Cortes conquers the Aztec Empire in Mexico

1524 – 1525   Francisco Pizarro’s first voyage heads south from Panama and explores along the coast of Colombia. The trip is a financial failure. Pizarro’s colleague Diego de Almagro loses an eye in a battle with natives

1526   Pizarro, Almagro, and Hernando de Luque form the Company of the Levant, a company dedicated to conquest.

1526 – 1527   Pizarro and Almagro’s second voyage. Pizarro makes his first contact with the Inca Empire at Tumbez

1528   The Inca Emperor Huayna Capac dies from European introduced smallpox. His death sets off a civil war between his sons Atahualpa and Huascar

1528 – 1529   Pizarro journeys to Spain, where he is granted a license to conquer Peru by the queen

1531 – 1532   Pizarro’s third voyage to Peru. Pizarro captures Atahualpa

1533   Atahualpa is executed; Almagro arrives; Pizarro capptures Cuzco and installs seventeen year old Manco Inca as the new Inca emperor

1536   Gonzalo Pizarro steals Manco Inca’s wife, Cura Ocllo. Manco rebels and surrrounds Cuzco, Juan Pizarro is killed, and the Inca general Quizo Yupanqui attacks Lima

1537   Almagro seizes Cuzco from Hernando and Gonzalo Pizarro. Rodrigo Orgonez sacks Vitcos and captures Manco Inca’s son, Titu Cusi. Manco escapes and flees to Vilcabanba, the new Inca capital

1538   Hernando Pizarro executes Diego de Almagro

1539   Gonzalo Pizarro invades and sacks Vilcabamba; Manco Inca escapes but Francisco Pizarro executes Manco’s wife, Cura Ocllo

1540   Hernando Pizarro begins a prison sentence of twenty years in Spain

1541   Francisco Pizarro is murdered by supporters of Almagro. One of his assassins, Diego Mendez, flees to Vilcabamba

1544   Manco Inca is murdered by Diego Mendez and six renegade Spaniards. Gonzalo Pizarro rebels against the king of Spain

1548   Battle of Jaquijahuana; Gonzalo Pizarro is executed by representatives of the king

1557   The Inca Emperor Syri-Tupac leaves Vilcabamba and relocates near Cuzco

1560   Sayri-Tupac dies. Titu Cusi becomes Inca emperor in Vilcabamba

1570   The Augustinian friars Garcia and Ortiz attempt to visit the capital of Vilcabamba; Titu Cusi refuses to allow them to enter. The friars burn the Inca shrine at Chuquipalta, and friar Garcia is expelled

1571   Titu Cusi dies; Tupac Amaru becomes emperor

1572   The Viceroy of Peru, Francisco Toledo, declares war on Vilcabamba. Vicabamba is sacked and Tupac Amaru – the final Inca emperor – is captured and executed in Cuzco

1572   The Inca capital of Vilcabamba is abandoned; the Spaniards remove the inhabitants and relocated them to a new town they christen San Francisco de la Victoria de Vilcabamba

1578   Hernando Pizarro dies in Spain at the age of 77

1911   Hiram Bingham discovers ruins at Machu Picchu, Vitcos, and a place called Espiritu Pampa, which local Campa Indians refer to as “Vilcabamba". Bingham locates all three of these sites within four weeks

1912   Bingham returns to Machu Picchu, this time with the sponsorship of the National Geographic Society – its first sponsored expedition

1913   National Geographic dedicates an entire issue Bingham’s discovery of Machu Picchu

1914 – 1915   Bingham’s third and final trip to Machu Picchu. He discovers what is now called the “Inca Trail"

1920   Hiram Bingham publishes his book Inca Land, in which he states that Machu Picchu is actually the lost Inca city of Vilcabamba, the final refuge of the last Inca emperors

1955   The American explorer/writer Victor von Hagen publishes High way of the Sun, in which he argues that Machu Picchu cannot be Vilcabamba

1957   Gene Savoy arrives in Peru

1964- 1965   Gene Savoy, Douglasa Sharon, and Antonio Santander discover extensive ruins at Espirity Pampa, which Savoy claims is the location of Vilcabamba the Old

1970   Savoy publishes Antisuya, an account of his explorations at Espiritu Pampa and elsewhere. Savoy leaves Peru and relocates to Reno, Nevada

1982   Vincent Lee visits the Vilcabamba area while on a climbing trip

1984   Vincent and Nancy Lee discover more than four hundred structures at Espiritu Pampa, confirming that it was the largest settlement in the Vilcabamba area and thus was undoubtedly the site Manco Inca’s capital of Vilcabamba – home of the last Inca emperors

2002 – 2005   Peru’s Instituto Nacional de Cultura conducts the first archaeological excavations at Vilcabamba