Túpac Amaru I, the last ruler of Vilcabamba,
beheaded in the plaza of Cuzco in 1572. Guaman
Poma de Ayala, Felipe. El primer nueva corónica
y buen gobierno. Edited by John V. Murra and
Rolena Adorno, 418/451. Mexico City: Siglo
Veintiuno, 1980 [1615].Vitcos probably functioned as a royal estate (see Estates, Royal) decades
before it became Manco’s de facto capital in the wake of the Spanish invasion.
The oldest sector is built of white granite, and boasts some of the finest
stonework in the region, with a wall studded by double-jambed doorways,
probably the remains of a royal compound, opening onto a small plaza. The
central sector, constructed of fieldstone set in mud mortar, may have served as
Manco’s residence. The southern sector is the site of a famous carved stone,
shrine, and oracle known as Yurac Rumi (white rock). Spanish clergy had the