Pizarro: Tumbes, Cajamarca and Cusco

By April 1528 Pizarro's expedition reached the Tumbes region, the first success the Spanish had so long desired. The local Tumpis welcomed them with hospitality and provisions. Two of Pizarro's men reported silver and gold decorating the chief's residence, and the Spanish saw llamas for the first time, calling them "little camels". Pizarro took two boys to learn Spanish; one, later baptised Felipillo, became an important interpreter. The town sat in a territory the Inca emperor Huayna Capac had expanded with roads, houses and palaces.

Location precision: The sources place the landing in the Tumbes region, not at one spot; the pin marks the modern city.

On his return in 1531-32 Pizarro found Tumbes deserted and destroyed, and judged it not a suitable base. In July or August 1532 he founded San Miguel de la Nueva Castilla at the Tallán settlement of Tangarará: the first Spanish city in Peru. On 24 September 1532 he marched inland with 200 men, leaving 50 under Antonio Navarro. The settlement was later abandoned and the city refounded as Piura.

Location precision: Tangarará's exact site is not pinned; the pin marks the present city of Piura, refounded after the original was abandoned.

Pizarro arrived on 15 November 1532. When a friar presented the Spanish demands, Atahualpa replied, "I shall be no man's tributary." The Spanish attacked on 16 November and took him prisoner; Pizarro himself was wounded in the hand while stopping a soldier from killing him. Atahualpa offered to fill his cell, 6.70 by 5.18 metres, with gold up to a red line 2.75 metres high, and two more rooms with silver. He was executed by garrote on 29 August 1533. This small building is considered to be where the Inca Empire ended.

The Spanish entered Cuzco on 15 November 1533. Pizarro's officers wrote to King Charles that the city was so beautiful it would be remarkable even in Spain. At its centre stood Qorikancha, the temple of Inti, the Sun god, whose walls were once covered in sheets of gold; most of Atahualpa's ransom was collected there. The Spanish built the Convent of Santo Domingo on its foundations, and the Inca walls, tightly interlocking blocks of stone, still stand. An underground archaeological museum is nearby.

Visitor guidance: The Inca walls are part of the Convent of Santo Domingo; an underground archaeological museum is nearby.

Pizarro founded Lima on 6 January 1535 and considered it one of the most important things he had created. In 1535 he laid the first stone of the church and carried the first wood himself. On 26 June 1541 about twenty supporters of Diego de Almagro II stormed his palace and killed him; he reportedly drew a cross in his blood and kissed it. In 1977 workers found a lead box inscribed with the head of the Marquis Pizarro. His crypt in the cathedral is covered in mosaics of the Conquest.

Visitor guidance: Pizarro's crypt is in the right nave, near the entrance; a small chest holds earth from his hometown, Trujillo.