The creator who rose from Lake Titicaca to make the sun, moon, and men, then walked west across the sea and never returned.
Born
1000 CE
Died
1572 CE
Lived
572 years
Dead for
454 yrs
Cause of death
Conquest · Forgotten
Replaced by
Catholicism
The Obituary
Viracocha was the supreme creator god of the Inca and earlier Andean peoples, maker of the cosmos, the sun, the moon, and the first humans. Myth holds that he emerged at Lake Titicaca, raised the heavenly bodies, and shaped people from stone, then wandered the land teaching civilization, aided by his two sons Imaymana Viracocha and Tocapo Viracocha, before walking west across the Pacific and disappearing over the sea. Worshipped as a remote high god above the sun god Inti, his state cult ended with the Spanish conquest of Peru, completed by 1572, and the imposition of Catholicism.
Worth remembering
He created the world in darkness, raised the sun and moon from Lake Titicaca, and fashioned humans from stone.
After teaching the arts of civilization, he departed westward across the Pacific, vanishing over the waves.
Gallery
The Ponce Monolith, a carved anthropomorphic stela at Tiwanaku, BoliviaP. Hughes (User:Indies1) · CC BY 4.0The Bennett Monolith, the largest carved stone stela of the Tiwanaku cultureSodacan · CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources
Viracocha was the supreme creator god of the Inca and earlier Andean cultures Wikipedia
He was said to have created the world, sun, moon, and humans at Lake Titicaca Encyclopaedia Britannica
Viracocha created humans from clay, gave them language, clothing, agriculture, and the arts, then traveled teaching civilization before walking west across the Pacific; he was assisted by two sons or brothers, Imaymana Viracocha and Tocapo Viracocha. World History Encyclopedia
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.
Buried nearby — by shared fate or a neighbouring lifespan.
