Vitcos

Vitcos
	Vitcos (Rosaspata) archaeological site
	Shown within Peru
Alternative name	Rosaspata
Location	Cusco Region, Peru
Coordinates	13°05′54″S 72°55′55″W / 13.09833°S 72.93194°W
Type	ruins
History
Founded	c. 1450 CE
Abandoned	1572 CE
Cultures	Inca
Site notes
Condition	In ruins

Vitcos was a residence of Inca nobles and a ceremonial center of the Neo-Inca State (1537–1572). The archaeological site of ancient Vitcos, called Rosaspata, is in the Vilcabamba District of La Convención Province, Cusco Region in Peru. The ruins are on a ridge overlooking the junction of two small rivers and the village of Pucyura. The Incas had occupied Vilcabamba, the region in which Vitcos is located, about 1450 CE, establishing major centers at Machu Picchu, Choquequirao, Vitcos, and Vilcabamba.^[1] Vitcos was often the residence of the rulers of the Neo-Inca state until the Spanish conquest of this last stronghold of the Incas in 1572.

The location of Vitcos was later forgotten until 1911 when explorer Hiram Bingham identified the ruins known to local Peruvians as Rosaspata (Quechua: Rusaspata) as ancient Vitcos.^[2] The ruins of the Inca ceremonial center of Ñusta Hispana (the "White Rock") are about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) south of the Inca palace that is the outstanding feature of Rosaspata.

^ Bauer, Brian S., Halac-Higashimori, Madeleine, and Cantarutti, Gabriel E. (2013), Voices from Vilcabamba: Accounts Chronicling the Fall of the Inca Empire, Boulder: University Press of Colorado, p. 4. Downloaded from Project MUSE.
^ Hemming, John (1970), The Conquest of the Incas, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., pp. 484-485

[1] Bauer, Brian S., Halac-Higashimori, Madeleine, and Cantarutti, Gabriel E. (2013), Voices from Vilcabamba: Accounts Chronicling the Fall of the Inca Empire, Boulder: University Press of Colorado, p. 4. Downloaded from Project MUSE.

[2] Hemming, John (1970), The Conquest of the Incas, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., pp. 484-485

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