Daughter of the Sun A Novel of The Toltec Empire [Paperback]

Seventeen-year-old Hoshi'tiwa had a simple life: The daughter of a humble corn grower, she planned to marry a storyteller's apprentice. But her world is turned upside down when she is captured by the powerful and violent ruler of an infamous city with legends of untold wealth and unspeakable acts of violence to its name. Hoshi'tiwa is suddenly thrown into the court of the Dark Lord, and as she struggles for power, she begins an illicit affair with the one man who has the ability to destroy her.

Bestselling author Barbara Wood has crafted a sweeping saga of one woman's struggle to survive within the dangerous and exotic world of the Toltec court. Set against the backdrop of Chaco Canyon and the mysterious Anasazi people,Daughter of the Sunis an unforgettable novel of power, seduction, murder, and betrayal.

Where Did They Go?
An Original Essay by Barbara Wood

Daughter of the Sun is based on several unexplained mysteries found in the American Southwest.

All the significant locations mentioned in the book exist today and can be visited and explored: the rising-splendor called Precious Green is known today as Pueblo Bonito and the Star Chamber is called Casa Rinconada, to name a few. We do not know who built these great pueblos, or why. The safe house carved high in the cliff over Hoshi'tiwa's home settlement is typical of such mysterious cliff dwellings found all over the Four Corners region of the Southwest. No one knows who built these strange, inaccessible fortresses, or for what reason. Likewise, the wide, straight paved highways exist today, and experts cannot agree on their original purpose. Kivas are found in modern-day Hopi pueblos as well as in Anasazi ruins. Thousands have been discovered and, again, experts cannot determine what their original purpose was.

Rock art (in petroglyphs and pictographs) offers little in the way of explanation. The prophetic wall of symbols that Yani shows to Hoshi'tiwa exists tolã(