In early 1999, archaeologist johan reinhard climbed over 6,700 metres to the top of one of south america's highest volcanoes, llullaillaco(pronounced yu-yi-ya-ko). The summit was covered in freezing ice and snow, and the wind often reached speeds of up to 113 kilometres an hour. Reinhard was there to find something very special. He dug down through the earth and rocks beneath some ancient ruins and found a small chamber. Inside the chamber, he found what he was looking for: the frozen mummies off three Inca children.
The Inca were a great South American civilisation. Unit the sixteenth century, they ruled nearly 1 million square kilometres of western South America. Then they disappeared. Not much is known about them because they didn't keep written records. But Reinhard has spent his life studying them. Before he found the three children on Llullaillaco, he found fifteen other Inca mummies on other mountains. He believes the frozen mummies were human sacrifices to the Inca gods.
The children
on Llullaillaco were very young when they died. Scientists think that the boy and two girls were between six and fifteen years old. They had been frozen on the summit of Llullaillaco for over 500 years. Reinhard couldn't believe how well the mummies had been preserved. They looked like they had been buried only a short time before. The mummies were carefully removed and carried down the mountain. Since then Reinhard has had the chance to study them and has even found a living relative one of the girls!