The concept that there once were lost civilizations inhabited by giant beings has gained a lot of traction among people in recent times, primarily as a result of the proliferation of the Internet. On the other hand, prior to the last few decades, the vast majority of people were not familiar with this topic.
Peru is one of the countries where these ancient stories have been documented by chroniclers or passed down from generation to generation, showing the “strangeness” that the colonizers witnessed hundreds of years ago.
There is a special region on our planet that is home to a large number of legends and stories that center on legendary figures of exceptional stature. Additionally, these tales are only a few hundred years old, not thousands.
Stories about the Peruvian giants have been known since the 16th century when the first Spanish conquerors arrived in this region. One of the first reports of the Peruvian giants is the story of the conqueror Pedro Cieza de León, which is described in the book ‘Royal Commentaries of the Incas and General History of Peru, Part One,’ written by the Peruvian writer Inca Garcilaso de la Vega.
Pedro Cieza de León apparently did not personally witness the giants, but he conversed with those who did. In his report, he described how in the past, people of enormous stature sailed their massive rafts from the reeds to the shore, where the native settlement was situated. The settlement used to be situated on the Santa Elena peninsula, which is now a part of the area that belongs to Ecuador.
The giants disembarked from the rafts on the peninsula and established their camp near the conquerors. Apparently, they decided to settle here for a long time, because they immediately began to dig deep wells to extract water from them.
The following is described in a passage taken from the old text: “Some of them were so tall that a normal-sized man would barely reach his knees. Their limbs were proportional to the body, but their huge heads with shoulder-length hair were monstrous. Their eyes were huge as saucers and their faces were beardless. Some of them were dressed in animal skins, but some were in their natural state (without clothing). Not a single woman was seen among them. When they set up camp, they began to dig deep wells to get water. They dug them in stony soil and then built strong stone pits. The water in them was excellent, it was always fresh and tasted good.”
As soon as the giants established their camp, they immediately made a bloody raid on the village of the local natives. According to Cieza de León’s description, they stole all that was within their reach and devoured everything that they could consume, including human beings!
It was a terrifying scene when these enormous people dangling from the trees and the villagers ran away from them in fear because they were almost powerless to protect themselves. Then, on the site of the devastated village, the giants built their enormous huts and stayed here to fish and hunt in the local forests.
This story came to a conclusion with a completely unbelievable event, which involved a “bright angel” appearing in the sky and taking away all of these giants.
Despite this, Cieza de León himself believed that the story was completely true, and he claimed that he had personally witnessed the enormous stone wells that had been dug by the giants. He also writes that other conquerors saw the wells and the remains of enormous houses that the indigenous people of the area were unable to construct.
Furthermore, Cieza de León writes about even more curious things. He writes that the conquerors found very large human bones in this area, as well as pieces of teeth that were large and heavy.
“In 1550, in the city of Lima, I heard that when His Excellency Don Antonio de Mendoza, the viceroy and governor of New Spain, was here, some bones of people were found that were huge and could belong to giants. I also heard that complete deposits of giant bones were found in an ancient tomb in or near Mexico City. Since many locals claim to have seen them first hand, we can assume that these giants really exist and may belong to only one race.”
Another proof of the existence of ancient Peruvian giants can be found in the records of Captain Juan Olmos, who in 1543 excavated ancient burials in the Trujillo Valley and supposedly discovered bones of people of great stature there.
Chronicle of Father Cristóbal de Acuña where he mentions having seen giants 10 feet high. Later, another giant skeleton was found in the province of Tucumán by the conqueror Agustín de Zárate and his people. In general, similar stories come from Spanish characters who visited Peru during the 16th century and continued to appear in the 17th century.
