Abstract
Abstract This chapter frames the concept of “apocalypse” in the Andean world. It describes the process of royal history-making that the Incas performed in their capital, Cuzco, as well as the legends of ancestral emergence and migration that granted their dynasty a deeper history than other Andean peoples. It recounts Andean creation myths and introduces the concept of cyclical creation and the destruction of space-time. The discussion of the archaeological record reveals areas where Inca histories and legends diverge from scientific fact, making it possible to consider the aspirational quality of Inca history and the unfolding imperial project of building a world empire. The contradictions of Inca history help us to understand the factional competition found among the Inca nobility, foreshadowing the conflicts that would erupt in a civil war on the eve of the Spanish invasion.
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