Pachacuti

Pachacuti was the ninth Sapa Inca of Cusco, rising to power after the Chanka-Inca War. From that foothold he launched conquests in all directions: south to Lake Titicaca and Lake Poopó, east toward the Amazon rainforest, north to the Quito basin, and along the coast from Tumbes possibly as far as Tarapacá. He built the Inti Raymi festival to mark the southern hemisphere's new year and expanded the cult of Inti, the sun god. Within three generations the dominion he set in motion overtook the Chimú empire and claimed a sizeable slice of western South America. After his death his deeds lived on through genealogies, life histories, and quipus kept near his mummy - though some scholars now argue he may be as much cosmological myth as historical man.