The White Rock

More than twenty years ago, acclaimed filmaker and explorer Hugh Thomson first set off into the Peruvian cloud forest to find an Inca ruin called Llactapata, which had been carelessly lost after its initial discovery. Following this introduction to the curious and confusing world of Inca archaeology, Thomson quickly found himself addicted to the heady drug of discovery and, like many famous explorers before him, relaized that what matters is not just finding a ruin, but also understanding what that ruin means.

In his subsequent travels, Thomson visited many more remote lost cities along the interconnecting paths the Incas laid across the Andes, talked to archaeologists and explorers working in the area, and investigated the remains of the remarkable Inca civilization. The result of his discoveries and research is The White Rock, an engaging history of the Inca people and their heartland, which vividly resurrects the Inca culture and gives us the true flavour of their strange and sometimes hostile world.

Thomson weaves the story of his own discoveries and brushes with danger into a narrative that seamlessly relates the accounts of the famous explorers who proceeded him, including Hiram Bingham who discovered Machu Picchu. As the Independent said, “In The White Rock, the whole continent becomes a plot with suspense and a cast of outrageous characters. This is Bruce Chatiwn with cojones.”