Gran Vilaya

Stretching for miles along a ridge of the Andes called "the jungle's eyebrow," the ancient city of Gran Vilaya is perhaps the largest complex of ancient ruins to be identified in our time. In immensity and grandeur, this vast Chachapoyan city in the mountain jungles of northeastern Peru certainly surpasses any other ruin known in that country.
    Its discoverer, Gene Savoy, named the ancient metropolis in 1985 for the nearby river Gran Vilaya, but he believes it is actually the citadel fortress which Incan chronicles call "Rabantu" --the indomitable refuge where Manco, the last Inca ruler, hoped to build a new life for his nation, and where he was fleeing with his people when the Spanish armies finally captured him.
    Over the past ten years, explorer Gene Savoy and other Foundation members have studied and surveyed the vast metropolis. During this time, the Foundation has also shed much light on the legendary Chachapoyas, the pre-Inca builders of this city, a mysterious Caucasoid people whose existence in pre-Columbian America continues to baffle historians and archeologists.