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A Sacred Landscape: The Search for Ancient Peru
A follow-up to The White Rock brings readers to remote sites in the central highlands of ancient Incan Peru to trace the rise and fall of pre-Inca civilization through the story of the author's family's relocation to a Yucay valley farm.
376 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
9 people are currently reading
349 people want to read
About the author
Hugh Thomson
140 books42 followersHugh Thomson believes strongly that the world is not as explored as we like to suppose.
He writes about the wilder corners of the planet, from the edges of Peru to the Himalayas, looking for Inca ruins and lost cultures. Geographical commented that 'he is a writer who explores and not an explorer who writes.'
For 'The Green Road into the Trees', he returned to Britain to write about his own country. It won the inaugural Wainwright Prize for Best Nature and Travel Writing. 'An immensely enjoyable book: curious, articulate, intellectually playful and savagely candid.' Spectator.
For the successful sequel, 'One Man and a Mule', he decided to have ‘a South American adventure in England’ by taking a mule as a pack animal across the north of the country.
His most recent book is his first novel - ‘Viva Byron!’ - which imagines what might have happened if the poet had not died an early death in Greece - but instead lived - and then some! - by going to South America with the great last love of his life, Countess Teresa Guiccioli, to help Simon Bolivar liberate it from the Spanish. "Hugh Thomson is a mesmerising storyteller." Sara Wheeler.
His previous books include: 'The White Rock', 'Nanda Devi' and 'Cochineal Red: Travels through Ancient Peru' (all Weidenfeld & Nicolson), and he has collected some of his favourite places in the lavishly illustrated '50 Wonders of the World'.
In 2009 he wrote 'Tequila Oil', a memoir about getting lost in Mexico when he was eighteen and, in the words of the Alice Cooper song, 'didn't know what he wanted'. It was serialised by BBC R4 as 'Book of the Week'.
"Delightful, celebratory and honest....In a way 'Tequila Oil' is the first installment of his now-complete trilogy, his 'Cochineal Red' and 'The White Rock' being two of the finest books on Latin America of recent years." (Rory MacLean, The Guardian)
See www.thewhiterock.co.uk for more, including his blog and events at which he is speaking.
He writes about the wilder corners of the planet, from the edges of Peru to the Himalayas, looking for Inca ruins and lost cultures. Geographical commented that 'he is a writer who explores and not an explorer who writes.'
For 'The Green Road into the Trees', he returned to Britain to write about his own country. It won the inaugural Wainwright Prize for Best Nature and Travel Writing. 'An immensely enjoyable book: curious, articulate, intellectually playful and savagely candid.' Spectator.
For the successful sequel, 'One Man and a Mule', he decided to have ‘a South American adventure in England’ by taking a mule as a pack animal across the north of the country.
His most recent book is his first novel - ‘Viva Byron!’ - which imagines what might have happened if the poet had not died an early death in Greece - but instead lived - and then some! - by going to South America with the great last love of his life, Countess Teresa Guiccioli, to help Simon Bolivar liberate it from the Spanish. "Hugh Thomson is a mesmerising storyteller." Sara Wheeler.
His previous books include: 'The White Rock', 'Nanda Devi' and 'Cochineal Red: Travels through Ancient Peru' (all Weidenfeld & Nicolson), and he has collected some of his favourite places in the lavishly illustrated '50 Wonders of the World'.
In 2009 he wrote 'Tequila Oil', a memoir about getting lost in Mexico when he was eighteen and, in the words of the Alice Cooper song, 'didn't know what he wanted'. It was serialised by BBC R4 as 'Book of the Week'.
"Delightful, celebratory and honest....In a way 'Tequila Oil' is the first installment of his now-complete trilogy, his 'Cochineal Red' and 'The White Rock' being two of the finest books on Latin America of recent years." (Rory MacLean, The Guardian)
See www.thewhiterock.co.uk for more, including his blog and events at which he is speaking.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
May 20, 2024
This is a delightful book that manages to combine archeology with personal experience, and in the process gave a very credible unifying theory of Andean culture, past and present. Hugh Thomson's A Sacred Landscape: The Search for Ancient Peru is a sequel to his The White Rock: An Exploration of the Inca Heartland, which I also loved. In the end, he concludes:
Above all it exemplified the great achievement of Andean pre-Columbian civilization: the ability to give meaning to a harsh and difficult environment, to carve order out of the inchoate, perhaps the most primeval of aesthetic impulses, in this case to create a complex sacred landscape where once had been plain rock and water. Any other people would have looked at the terrifying precipitate terrain around Machu Picchu, 'a landscape built by titans in a fit of megalomania' as Christopher Isherwood once described it, and turned away.Discussed are excavations at Llactapata, within view of Machu Picchu and visits to archeological sites of the Chavin, the Nasca, the Tihuanasuco, and the Huari (Wari). At the end of an exciting description of the present-day Qoyllurit'i festival held in the mountains between Puno and Cuzco.
April 21, 2018
Thomson is a seasoned traveler and archeologist with a great deal of experience working in South America. He begins this book recounting a revisit to Llactapata, a shrine site near Machu Picchu. He described the e trek and the personality of his international team and I thought … hmmmm, this is not too interesting. Having got his own research out of the way he then narrates a series of journeys around Peru (with a brief jaunt into Bolivia at Lake Titicaca) and relates the amazing tales of cities and civilizations He begins with the pyramids at Caral which predate pottery and are contemporaneous with the those in Egypt, say 2600 BC. He goes on to visit and describe the architecture, rites, and religions of the Moche, Nazca, Chavin, Huari (immediate predecessors of the Inca). None of these civilizations was literate, although they may have used weaving and the famous quipu knot recordings. Even so, they clearly managed to establish great empires, build monumental structures, and establish a complex, if blood thirsty, religious traditions. Once it picked up steam, I found this a most engaging historical narrative about a truly underappreciated series of cultures in the New World
October 18, 2023
While the companion to this, Thomson's White Rock (also reviewed), takes a personal approach, this journey explores the same landscapes of the Peruvian coast and Sierra through the author's archeological knowledge, shared and often contested between archeologists. Thomson shows how the Caran civilization dates back 5000 years, and how in one of the last areas in the prehistoric world to be settled, a peaceful trading culture rose. However, like so many to follow, it seems climate change ended their communities. The ones after have in common a penchant for sacrifice, common throughout much of the Southern Hemisphere, Thomson suggests, up and down the continental rocky spine.
He is commendably cautious to attribute "sacred" to what he discerns, but as in the Nazca lines, he where that not all sites or artifacts need to be reduced to belief, warfare, or death. After all, he muses, why do we fly kites? His tour of the top archeological finds also brings in a traditional glacial ritual that thrives today, and concludes with a memorable proof of a solstice alignment that convinces even a skeptic like him.
He is commendably cautious to attribute "sacred" to what he discerns, but as in the Nazca lines, he where that not all sites or artifacts need to be reduced to belief, warfare, or death. After all, he muses, why do we fly kites? His tour of the top archeological finds also brings in a traditional glacial ritual that thrives today, and concludes with a memorable proof of a solstice alignment that convinces even a skeptic like him.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 19, 2017
For decades people have lamented the death of real travel, complaining that there are no new discoveries to be made in our much-traveled, well-known world. Hugh Thomson offers a different perspective in A Sacred Landscape, warning against complacency about the extent of our knowledge. Indeed, in Peru, where excavation has been slow, monuments and artifacts of the most ancient civilizations have only recently begun to emerge, offering glimpses of the fascinating cultures that are the focus of this book.
A Sacred Landscape follows a year Thomson spent in Peru, but it reflects his work in the country over 25 years and spans 5000 years of Andean history. His story begins with Llactapata, an Incan site first reported in 1912 by Hiram Bingham, the American explorer who discovered Machu Picchu, and visited in 1982 by Thomson himself. Still puzzled twenty years later by the discrepancies in their findings, Thomson organized an expedition to explore the whole area.
But in the process of working out the extent and significance of Llactapata, Thomson came to feel he couldn’t understand the Incas without more fully understanding the Andean civilizations that had preceded them. In his quest to comprehend the “Pan-Andean, shared culture,” he decided to investigate these earlier civilizations.
Circling back from Llactapata, Thomson’s narrative guides us to Caral, with its evidence of a peaceful people, focused on trade; to Cerro Sechin, with its “shockingly violent” frieze, comprising “around 350 monumental stone figures”; to the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon built by the “exuberant and colorful” Moche, who left behind remnants of human sacrifice as well as extraordinary ceramics, some depicting explicit erotic activities; to Chavin, with its jaguar heads, whose features suggest a cult using psychotropic drugs; and to Nasca, with its geoglyphs, the famous Nasca lines. As Thomson observes in his introduction, “Ancient Peru was a place full of wild energies.”
Combining on-site descriptions with in-depth research, Thomson offers various possible interpretations of the findings, whose meaning, without a written record, we can only partly grasp. Throughout, he emphasizes the landscape, so important to Andean myth.
Informative as it is, this is a personal book, filled with anecdotes—about Thomson’s companions, various archeologists who help him, and his family, who join him in Peru—and permeated by his passion for his work. Thomson is an explorer, willing to hack his way through jungle or to attend the most extreme of all Andean festivals, the Qoyllurit’i pilgrimage, with its midnight vigil on a glacier. He is an excellent guide, thorough in his descriptions, and neither judgmental nor sensationalist in his presentation of the intriguing cultures that are being unearthed in what, “it now seems, was the cradle of civilisation in the Americas.”
A Sacred Landscape follows a year Thomson spent in Peru, but it reflects his work in the country over 25 years and spans 5000 years of Andean history. His story begins with Llactapata, an Incan site first reported in 1912 by Hiram Bingham, the American explorer who discovered Machu Picchu, and visited in 1982 by Thomson himself. Still puzzled twenty years later by the discrepancies in their findings, Thomson organized an expedition to explore the whole area.
But in the process of working out the extent and significance of Llactapata, Thomson came to feel he couldn’t understand the Incas without more fully understanding the Andean civilizations that had preceded them. In his quest to comprehend the “Pan-Andean, shared culture,” he decided to investigate these earlier civilizations.
Circling back from Llactapata, Thomson’s narrative guides us to Caral, with its evidence of a peaceful people, focused on trade; to Cerro Sechin, with its “shockingly violent” frieze, comprising “around 350 monumental stone figures”; to the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon built by the “exuberant and colorful” Moche, who left behind remnants of human sacrifice as well as extraordinary ceramics, some depicting explicit erotic activities; to Chavin, with its jaguar heads, whose features suggest a cult using psychotropic drugs; and to Nasca, with its geoglyphs, the famous Nasca lines. As Thomson observes in his introduction, “Ancient Peru was a place full of wild energies.”
Combining on-site descriptions with in-depth research, Thomson offers various possible interpretations of the findings, whose meaning, without a written record, we can only partly grasp. Throughout, he emphasizes the landscape, so important to Andean myth.
Informative as it is, this is a personal book, filled with anecdotes—about Thomson’s companions, various archeologists who help him, and his family, who join him in Peru—and permeated by his passion for his work. Thomson is an explorer, willing to hack his way through jungle or to attend the most extreme of all Andean festivals, the Qoyllurit’i pilgrimage, with its midnight vigil on a glacier. He is an excellent guide, thorough in his descriptions, and neither judgmental nor sensationalist in his presentation of the intriguing cultures that are being unearthed in what, “it now seems, was the cradle of civilisation in the Americas.”
December 25, 2008
I read this before my trip to Peru and was thrilled to have visited some of the areas I read about. I was so happy to read about the true landscape of Peru and different ruins in a story-telling fashion. the "characters" were true explorers and archeologists of Peru which maintained my interest as I learned. my tour guides mentioned these people Hugh Thomson spoke of and interacted with. I felt more connected to the land, culture and hisotry because of my feelings for the people who explore and love it - the author, Hugh Thomson, being one of them. I went to cross keys, the local bar Hugh frequents on his journeys through Peru.. it's located in Cusco. Cross keys has pictures of Hugh and a whole book of fun times. This, and possibly his other books, are a must read for someone who plans on visting the lovely country, Peru.
February 28, 2009
I only read the first two chapters to get ready for my trip to Cusco and Machu Picchu, so my opinion isn't quite fair. The pre-Columbian content is good and the writing style is unpretentious, but it feels a bit dry. I liked the anecdote about the International Young Presidents Organization (YPO), but didn't feel the other personal details were captivating enough. The first-person narration could be either more exciting or left out all together.
A good example of combining historical research with personal adventuring in South America is John Gimlette's At The Tomb of the Inflatable Pig. It was coincidentally also written by an English author, and details his journey through modern day Paraguay while examining its volatile past.
A good example of combining historical research with personal adventuring in South America is John Gimlette's At The Tomb of the Inflatable Pig. It was coincidentally also written by an English author, and details his journey through modern day Paraguay while examining its volatile past.
December 7, 2015
A very readable introduction to the history of pre-Columbian Peru, interspersed with an account of the author's travels through the country in the early 2000s. I bought it at the end of my two week visit to Peru, and wish I had gotten it long before: it discusses fascinating archaeological sites properly explored only in the last twenty years (e.g., Caral) that I'd now love to visit. The end notes provide a long list of references for further reading.
One of the major lessons of this book is that Peruvian archaeology remains very much an open field: the estimated data of birth of Andean civilization has been pushed back a thousand years since the 1990s, efforts at deciphering the quipu are ongoing, and countless sites are still waiting to be properly excavated.
One of the major lessons of this book is that Peruvian archaeology remains very much an open field: the estimated data of birth of Andean civilization has been pushed back a thousand years since the 1990s, efforts at deciphering the quipu are ongoing, and countless sites are still waiting to be properly excavated.
February 17, 2009
This book was so chock-full of new experiences that it took me a good six months to read. I was constantly on the internet looking up more information about all the archeological sites and references. Written in an engaging style (and not pretentious), I kept coming back to read "just another chapter".
March 17, 2009
This is a fantastic book. Read it. I promise, if you weren't interested in Peru before you picked it up, you certainly will be by the time you finish. That and you will have unwittingly become fascinated by the archeological research being done in that part of the world.
May 19, 2011
this book is slow in spots. really slow. but if you can use the high points and the flashes of humor as a springboard through the slow bits, you'll see peruvian culture from the coast to the andes to lake titicaca and further. it's a really neat view...
May 2, 2012
I've realized that I'm shockingly ignorant when it comes to all things South America. It feels a little wrong to know more about the court of King Henry VIII than about, you know, a whole freaking continent much closer in space and time. So, back to the beginning here.
January 20, 2025
This book simply was not as engaging or entertaining as The White Rock. While the history of Peru will always be interesting, the personal stories and details bog down the entire work and are often completely superfluous. Deep into the book, a passing sentence informs us that a dog (we’ve never met) that his son liked had been run over, and they kept that information from his son. That’s all. Did his son ever find out? Was Thomson torn about not telling his son? Am I supposed to feel sad about the dog? It’s a personal detail that is plopped in that is never led up to or referred to again, and is completely unimportant. These details pop up throughout a book that has some very interesting travels and history, but some shrewder editing would have gone a long way. A bit of a slog because of that.
July 8, 2017
Very readable account of many archaeological sites in Peru, told from an archaeologist. His story-telling of his own and of previous discoveries made the accounts interesting and memorable. The people and the places came to life for me. And he convinced me that these ancient people really did create sacred landscapes through their pyramids, line drawings at Nasca, and carefully planned and situated sites that related so dramatically to the land itself, to the stars and sun, and to one another as well. Stone, water, and sky were the ingredients they used over thousands of years to create magnificent sites that reveal beauty, intelligence and soul.
June 8, 2022
We found this book on a list of suggested reading for tourists planning on visiting Machu Picchu and other sites in Peru. To that end, this book is a must.
This is not a tourism book. It is a friendly story of Hugh Thomson's archaeological explorations of sacred sites in Peru. The truly scholarly accounts are published in Journals specializing in that sort of thing.
In addition to theories, histories, and construction of sites, he writes of taking a "vodka mule" (in addition to supply mules) on his expeditions. He, at times, tells of going native and at other times of dealing with governmental bureaucracy or the pains of getting funding.
This is not a tourism book. It is a friendly story of Hugh Thomson's archaeological explorations of sacred sites in Peru. The truly scholarly accounts are published in Journals specializing in that sort of thing.
In addition to theories, histories, and construction of sites, he writes of taking a "vodka mule" (in addition to supply mules) on his expeditions. He, at times, tells of going native and at other times of dealing with governmental bureaucracy or the pains of getting funding.
November 29, 2025
Favorite Quote:
“The sheer scale and quantity of the [Nasca] lines was overwhelming. More than a thousand designs spread over 1,000 square kilometers. And because they were seen so well from the air, and so easily, as I had done, the popular and natural impression was that this was the intention of their creators. The presumption that the lines were intended to be viewed from above, yet made by a people who could never view their own creation gave the modern visiter the supposed added satisfaction of seeing them in a way the Nasca would have liked to, but couldn’t: a delayed gratification” (p. 172).
“The sheer scale and quantity of the [Nasca] lines was overwhelming. More than a thousand designs spread over 1,000 square kilometers. And because they were seen so well from the air, and so easily, as I had done, the popular and natural impression was that this was the intention of their creators. The presumption that the lines were intended to be viewed from above, yet made by a people who could never view their own creation gave the modern visiter the supposed added satisfaction of seeing them in a way the Nasca would have liked to, but couldn’t: a delayed gratification” (p. 172).
January 27, 2020
3 1/2 stars. This account of Hugh’s travels through Peru is very interesting although I didn’t find it quite as engaging as his early book, The White Rock. It’s still a good and worthy read if you’re interested in Peru’s history. He goes back to the earliest ruins and then proceeds to move forward in time going to different locations to discover more about each ancient people and culture. The links to the Incas is fascinating.
July 9, 2020
This is a really interesting book with quite readable chapters on all the civilizations that preceded the Inca in Peru. Thomson does a great job of showing how the Inca drew on centuries-old traditions for many of their customs, practices, beliefs, and even forms of government. Thomson interweaves his own personal story within this larger framework, making for a true touch of the personal. I read this under a different title A Sacred Landscape.
August 16, 2019
In-depth history of the amazing history in Peru. The vast assembly of cultures from 3,000 BC to the collapse of cultures by the European invasion. Book makes you want more information if you appreciate historical data, carbon data and modern data technologies.
December 16, 2021
It contains a lot of interesting information about the pre-Inca civilizations, the main reason I was interested but it is a bit too academic, lacks grip and passion. For some moments it is bright and engaging but it is a very slow read in general.
May 24, 2018
I loved this book. Found it interesting from the historic point of view but also funny.
June 16, 2018
fascinating subject, engagingly narrated.
October 8, 2018
Good read in preparation for my trip to Peru but doesn't include the area I will be in other than a little about Lima
January 20, 2019
Very interesting; I wonder how outdated the hypotheses are now, but nonetheless I'm sure I know more about Peru than I did before.
March 3, 2019
Bueno
Read while visiting Peru and it provided great additional insight. However could be considered somewhat dry at times. Very different to tequila oil.
Read while visiting Peru and it provided great additional insight. However could be considered somewhat dry at times. Very different to tequila oil.
June 30, 2019
I very much enjoyed this book. It was easy to read and informative. I am definitely putting a trip to Peru to explore some of these sights on my travel list!!!
January 3, 2023
Entertaining outline of Peruvian culture
December 27, 2023
Interesting stories, but hampered by the writer’s need to talk about the attractiveness of all the women he encounters
October 23, 2024
Really good to read now I have been to Peru - would have been difficult if I hadn't been
Enjoyed it and learnt a lot
Enjoyed it and learnt a lot
December 12, 2024
Realising that Peru is a true treasure trove of archeological sites.
April 7, 2020
I read this while traveling around Peru and it really added to my trip. So interesting to learn about how old Peruvian civilization is and about the different ancient cultures. I never knew the Incas didn't have a written language!
The author's deep love for and curiousity about his subject make what could be dry material very engaging.
The author's deep love for and curiousity about his subject make what could be dry material very engaging.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews