The Lost Kingdoms of South America Part 3 - Lands of Gold

Through the mountains and jungles of Colombia, Cooper goes in search of the truth behind one of the greatest stories ever told - the legend of El Dorado. His journey takes him from Bogota to the Caribbean coast, through territories once dominated by two cultures, the Muisca and the Tairona, who flourished for centuries before the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century. Cooper reveals forgotten peoples who valued gold in a way the Western world still struggles to understand, travelling to an astonishing lost city and meeting the last survivors of an ancient civilisation.

http://boblswalks.blogspot.com/

Further Reading

El Dorado - Wikipedia
The Muisca People - Wikipedia
The Tairona People - Wikipedia

The Lost Kingdoms of South America Part 2 - The Stone at the Centre

Deep in the Bolivian Andes at the height of 13,000ft stands Tiwanaku, the awe-inspiring ruins of a monolithic temple city. Built by a civilisation who dominated a vast swathe of South America, it was abandoned 1,000 years ago. For centuries it has been a mystery - how did a civilisation flourish at such an altitude and why did it vanish? Jago Cooper journeys through Bolivia's spectacular landscape to investigate the origins of Tiwanaku and finds evidence of an ancient people with amazing understanding of their environment, whose religion was based on collective effort and ritual beer drinking.

http://boblswalks.blogspot.com/

Further Reading:

Tiwanaku Empire - Wikipedia

Tiwanaku - Wikipedia

Tiwanaku Empire - Ancient City and Imperial State in South America

The Lost Kingdoms of South America Part 1 - People of the Clouds

Over the next four weeks we look at the the history of some of South America's ancient civilisations. Exploring ruins and investigating the truth behind legends that surround these cultures,We will journey through Peru, Bolivia and Colombia to reveal the true character of the continent through its archaeology, culture, people and landscapes

Dr Cooper begins with an epic journey into the remote Peruvian Andes in search of the mysterious Chachapoya people. Once numbering half a million, they were known as the 'People of the Clouds'. Dr Cooper reveals how they developed sophisticated methods of recording stories, traded in exotic goods found hundreds of miles from their territory, and had funeral traditions that challenge assumptions about ancient human behaviour. His search for evidence takes him to astonishing cliff tombs untouched for 500 years and one of the most spectacular fortresses in South America, where the fate of the Chachapoya is revealed.

People of the Clouds

Here is some further reading:

Chachapoya Culture - Wikipedia
An Overview of Chachapoya Archaeology and History

The Polynesian Islands Part 2

This week there a couple of videos about how the Polynesians navigated and are based around a reconstruction of a seagoing canoe in Hawaii and a voyage southward to show how it was done.

THE NAVIGATORS Pathfinders Of The Pacific
Light at The Edge of The World - The Wayfinders