“If all the gold that is buried in Peru ... were collected, it would be impossible to coin it, so great the quantity; and yet the Spaniards of the conquest got very little, compared with what remains…. If, when the Spaniards entered Cuzco they had not committed other tricks, and had not so soon executed their cruelty in putting Atahualpa to death, I do not know how many great ships would have been required to bring such treasure to old Spain, as is now lost in the bowels of the earth and will remain so because those who buried it are now dead.”
-- Pedro Cieza de Leon, Chronicle of Peru, 1555
“Among the fantastic treasures reported on the imperial highway,” said Connell, “was a gold chain about 800 feet long – either a chain or a multicolored rope embellished with gold plates – which was so heavy that 200 Indians carried it. This chain, or rope, was held by dancers during important festivals, and is said to have been cast into a lake just south of Cuzco.
A golden chain 800 feet long? Perhaps it was even longer: One description sets its length at 350 yards, or 1,050 feet. One of the earliest accounts claims the ceremonial cord was as thick as a man’s wrist. If made of pure gold, it must have weighed a ton or more. Estimates of two tons are common. One writer believes it weighed ten tons! (This would mean each of the 200 dancers would have carried 100 pounds of chain – an unlikely burden for a dance ritual.) Whatever the case, the chain’s pure gold value would be reckoned in the tens to hundreds of millions of dollars today. Its historical value as the grandest surviving Inca artifact would render it virtually priceless.
https://www.aramcoexpats.com/articles/tracking-the-golden-chain/
-- Pedro Cieza de Leon, Chronicle of Peru, 1555
“Among the fantastic treasures reported on the imperial highway,” said Connell, “was a gold chain about 800 feet long – either a chain or a multicolored rope embellished with gold plates – which was so heavy that 200 Indians carried it. This chain, or rope, was held by dancers during important festivals, and is said to have been cast into a lake just south of Cuzco.
A golden chain 800 feet long? Perhaps it was even longer: One description sets its length at 350 yards, or 1,050 feet. One of the earliest accounts claims the ceremonial cord was as thick as a man’s wrist. If made of pure gold, it must have weighed a ton or more. Estimates of two tons are common. One writer believes it weighed ten tons! (This would mean each of the 200 dancers would have carried 100 pounds of chain – an unlikely burden for a dance ritual.) Whatever the case, the chain’s pure gold value would be reckoned in the tens to hundreds of millions of dollars today. Its historical value as the grandest surviving Inca artifact would render it virtually priceless.
https://www.aramcoexpats.com/articles/tracking-the-golden-chain/