on the wealthy lands surrounding Lake Titicaca. Sometime after 1400, one of the greatest Inca rulers, Pachacutec Inca Yupanqui, began planning his conquest of the south. It was the dawn of empire.

Lake Titicaca is a large freshwater lake in the Andes mountains, on the border of Bolivia and Peru. With a surface elevation of 12,507 feet (3,812 metres), it is often called the highest navigable ...