The Inca people of the Andean region of South America had a complete creation myth which involved Viracocha, their Creator God.

 

According to legend, Viracocha emerged from Lake Titicaca and created all of the things in the world, including human, before sailing off into the Pacific Ocean. Viracocha Creates the World. In the beginning, all was darkness and nothing existed. Viracocha the Creator came forth from the waters of Lake Titicaca and created the land and the sky before returning to the lake. He also created a race of people - in some versions of the story they were giants. These people and their leaders displeased Viracocha, so he came out of the lake again and flooded the world to destroy them. He also turned some of the men into stones. Then Viracocha created the Sun, Moon and stars.People are Made and Come Forth:Then Viracocha made men to populate the different areas and regions of the world. He created people, but left them inside the Earth. The Inca referred to the first men as Vari Viracocharuna.

 

Viracocha then created another group of men, also called viracochas. He spoke to these viracochas and made them remember the different characteristics of the peoples that would populate the world.

 

Then he sent all of the viracochas forth except for two. Theseviracochas went to the caves, streams, rivers and waterfalls of the land - every place where Viracocha had determined that people would come forth from the Earth. The viracochas spoke to the people in these places, telling them the time had come for them to come out of the Earth. The people came forth and populated the land.Viracocha and the Canas People:Viracocha then spoke to the two that had remained. He sent one to the east to the region called Andesuyo and the other to the west to Condesuyo. Their mission, like the otherviracochas, was to awaken the people and tell them their stories.

 

 

Viracocha himself set out in the direction of the city of Cuzco in the middle of the impire.

 

As he went along, he awoke those people who were in his path but who had not yet been awakened. Along the way to Cuzco, he went to the province of Cacha and awoke the Canas people, who emerged from the Earth but did not recognize Viracocha. They attacked him and he made it rain fire upon a nearby mountain. The Canas threw themselves at his feet and he forgave them.Viracocha Founds Cuzco and Walks Over the Sea:Viracocha continued to Urcos, where he sat on the high mountain and gave the people a special statue. Then Viracocha founded the city of Cuzco. There, he called forth from the Earth the Orejones: these "big-ears" (they placed large golden discs in their earlobes) would become the lords and ruling class of Cuzco. Viracocha also gave Cuzco its name. Once that was done, he walked to the sea, awakening people as he went. When he reached the ocean, the other viracochas were waiting for him. Together they walked off across the ocean after giving his people one last word of advice: beware of false men who would come and claim that they were the returned viracochas.

 

Because of the number of conquered cultures, the means of keeping the story and the unreliable Spaniards who first wrote it down, there are several variations of

the myth.

 

For example, Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa (1532-1592) tells a legend from the Cañari people (who lived south of Quito) in which two brothers escaped Viracocha’s destructive flood by climbing a mountain. After the waters went down, they made a hut. One day they came home to find food and drink there for them. This happened several times, so one day they hid and saw two Cañari women bring the food. The brothers came out of hiding but the women ran away. The men then prayed to Viracocha, asking him to send the women back. Viracocha granted their wish and the women came back: the legend says that all the Cañari are descended from these four people. Father Bernabé Cobo (1582-1657) tells the same story in greater detail.

 

 

This god of creation was very important to the Inca people so they built ststatues made of gold to ATTRACT HIS POWERS CLOSE TO THAM

 

The places where the people emerged from the Earth, such as waterfalls, caves and springs, were venerated as huacas - special places inhabited by a sort of semi-divine spirit. At the place in Cacha where Viracocha allegedly called fire down upon the belligerent Canas people, the Inca built a shrine and revered it as a huaca. At Urcos, where Viracocha had sat and given the people a statue, they built a shrine as well. They made a massive bench made of gold to hold the statue. Francisco Pizarro would later claim the bench as part of his share of the loot from Cuzco.The nature of Inca religion was inclusive when it came to conquered cultures: when they conquered and subjugated a rival tribe, they incorporated that tribe's beliefs in their religion (although in a lesser position to their own gods and beliefs). This inclusive philosophy is in stark contrast to the Spanish, who imposed Christianity on the conquered Inca while attempting to stamp out all vestiges of native religion.