In the Incan empire, the priests would take a virgin up to the top of a volcano and push her in to appease the volcano so it wouldn't explode.

“To create and maintain relationships with their gods, the Incas gave them a variety of offerings. These ranged from simple prayers, food, coca leaves and woven cloth to animals, blood and, in the ultimate sacrifice, human beings. In especially uncertain times, such as when an emperor died, or when volcanoes erupted or severe earthquakes or famine struck, priests sacrificed captured warriors or specially raised, perfectly formed children to the gods.”

A few years back, it was published that they'd found a cave on a volcano that contained leftovers of young women. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummy_Juanita https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/aug/04/why-incas-performed-human-sacrifice

The priests didn't take the women to the top of the volcano and push them in. Their entire priest-given religion, save for maybe worshipping a sun god, was a cover story.

We are dealing with the same “people” (edit: “sick, degenerate monsters”) now.

There is something to the false, globally-known sun god portion, though what precisely isn’t clear yet.