Secret of the Incas shot in Peru before. Wendell Corey was originally announced as star. In July 1953 Paramount took over Hal Wallis' contract with Charlton Heston and announced he would make the film after he finished "The Naked Jungle". "Secret of the Incas" was filmed on location in Peru at Cuzco and Machu Picchu, the first time that a major Hollywood studio filmed at this archeological site. A sixteen person unit including Heston, producer Mel Epstein and director Jerry Hopper spent a month filming footage in Peru in 1953. Five hundred indigenous people were used as extras in the film. The film also
Intihuatana, Urubamba Intihuatana, Urubamba Intihuatana (possibly from in the Quechua spelling "Inti Watana" or "Intiwatana") at the archaeological site of Machu Picchu (Machu Pikchu) is a notable ritual stone associated with the astronomic clock or calendar of the Inca in South America. Machu Picchu was thought to have been built c. 1450 by the Sapa Inca Pachacuti as a country estate, althought it is equally likely that the Inca discovered much older ruins (the inti watana, the temple of the sun, and the temple of the condor) and opted to build this majestic estate on older foundations. . In the late 16th