Juan Arias Díaz, also known as Juan Arias Diaz Topete, was a Spanish explorer and mineral prospector. He is credited with being the first European to visit the
Incan city of
Choquequirao, which he visited in 1710. However, it has been proposed that Spanish
conquistadors
Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (; ; ) were Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with and colonized parts of the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia during the Age of Discovery. Sailing ...
arrived first during their war against
Manco Inca. He allegedly found the city when he was resting his mules after a prospecting trek. He described it as "an ancient town of heathen times" known to the natives as "The Cradle of Gold". He led three expeditions to the town, finding a total of four sites, the three others of which have not been identified. His records of Choquequirao inspired American explorer
Hiram Bingham III to search for the city.
References
Inca Empire
Spanish conquistadors
Gold prospectors
Year of birth missing (living people)
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