Dan Snow 'overwhelmed' finding remains of girl, 12 - 'She was my daughter's age'

Daily Mirror

a day ago

Dan Snow explores the ruins of Machu Picchu in a compelling new show for 5. But the father-of-three was struck when he discovered the mummified remains of a young girl.
Scaling Machu Picchu, Dan Snow 's latest adventure is anything but ordinary. But he was rattled by his encounter with a 600-year-old Inca mummy.
The historian and presenter, 46, fronts Machu Picchu: The Discovery with Dan Snow on Channel 5, diving deep into the secrets of the ancient Peruvian city lost to the jungle for centuries.
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'It is the most splendid and overwhelming location for a historical site. Nothing can prepare you for arriving there,' he says, 'I'd never visited before and it was one of my bucket list places. I was so desperate to do it.'
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Alongside the stunning scenery came cultural revelations. 'The Incas were very different,' he says, 'To understand their belief systems, you have to turn everything you understand from the West on its head.
They used to keep their Emperors mummified, bringing them out on special occasions. Death wasn't the end for them. That was difficult because it's so different.'
He adds: "Seeing the way the landscape is kind of organised – like a great big Coliseum. Such beautiful mountains, river valleys and then stunning buildings.
All built with these extraordinary, exquisite stonemasonry techniques of the Inca. It is truly like a lost city in the jungle. It's the thing you dream about when you're a little kid."
But one of the most striking of the show moments came when Dan encountered the frozen remains of a 12-year-old-girl, sacrificed to the mountain gods.
'She was perfectly preserved in ice,' he says, 'I had to hold her for a minute. She was my daughter's age. It was one of the most overwhelming things.'
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Dan has been married to criminologist and philanthropist Lady Edwina Louise Grosvenor since November 2010. Edwina is the second daughter of the 6th Duke of Westminster, Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor. She and Dan lead a happy family life in the New Forest with their three children.
Hidden from Spanish invaders and swallowed by rainforest, Machu Picchu remained untouched for centuries. 'It was just so inaccessible," says Dan.
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The Spanish never managed to get to it. Everything grows so fast that it was abandoned: The Spanish never found it, and before you know it the jungle had just taken over.'
But reaching it wasn't easy. 'It was a really challenging place to film. Carrying all our equipment over these mountain paths,' he says, 'At one stage, we were swinging the camera, and I almost fell off into the valley below. It was exhausting.'
The altitude only made things worse. 'People were having nosebleeds as we were trying to operate equipment,' Dan adds. 'Even in Cusco, one of the highest cities on Earth. It was one of the more challenging places I have had to operate for sure.'
Now back from his visit, Dan's wanderlust is far from cured. 'I'd love to visit Easter Island," he says, 'There are Roman ruins in North Africa, even in China! The great happiness is that there's always opportunities.'