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30-467: About 30 miles away, within the Huamachuco district, is the significant archeological site of Marcahuamachuco . It is a complex of monuments, a prehistoric political and religious center of a culture that thrived 350 CE-1100 CE. The ruins of a Wari city, Viracochapampa , are located 3.5 km north of Huamachuco. Additionally there are many other pre-Columbian ruins around the town. The area surrounding

60-484: A dry season from June to August. 7°48′43.3″S 78°2′55.3″W  /  7.812028°S 78.048694°W  / -7.812028; -78.048694 Marcahuamachuco Marcahuamachuco is an archeological site of Pre-Incan ruins in the La Libertad Region of Peru . Although less well-known than other sites, it is considered significant and has been referred to by archaeologists as " Machu Picchu of

90-454: A more recent cult to Catequil . Marcahuamachuco became a prominent center at the same time that the Wari in southern Peru culture flourished (AD 400 – 1100). The site was likely abandoned in the 15th century. The latest investigations of the site by researchers John and Theresa Lange Topic (1991) suggested that occupation may have been seasonal, with a maximum population of 6,000. Their estimate

120-422: A student of McCown, continued with research in the site during 1968-69 and 1973–74. He worked to establish its cultural phases and chronologies on the basis of ceramic styles. The Huamachuco Archaeological Project, supported by a Canadian team, has been dedicated since 1981 to study the prehistory of the area. Its researchers have collected data and drawn conclusions about the site and its history. Marcahuamachuco

150-588: Is based upon the quantity of arable land and water availability. One of the earliest sketch maps on Marcahuamachuco comes from the 18th-century document prepared by Bishop Baltazar Jaime Martinez Compañón . Early descriptions and drawings from the late 19th century were done by European travelers, as the field of archeology was developing professionally. Charles Wiener in 1880 published the first topographical description of Marcahuamachuco and named its principal compounds. Ernst Middendorf visited Marcahuamachuco in 1887, describing its principal compounds and comparing

180-459: Is set atop the nexus of three mountain valleys at an altitude of more than 3,200 meters (10,000 feet). Encompassing more than three kilometres of land, the site is celebrated for its massive castillos and unique circular double-walled archaeological structures. Over many centuries, however, the ruins have been degraded by natural elements, and today face accelerating threats from grazing livestock, plant growth, lack of conservation and surveillance, and

210-584: Is the right meaning of the city's name. Huamachuco is located between the eastern and western cordillera of the Andes Mountains , and 100 km south of Cajamarca . It has highland areas that range from 2500 to 4500 m. above sea level. Because of the heights, most of Huamachuco's land is treeless. The high-altitude grassland is known as puna . The highland is bounded on the east and west by two parallel sierra ranges. The puna grasslands were ideal habitats for deer and wild camelids . They also supported

240-525: The Pacific Ocean . In Colombia and Venezuela , cordilleras are named according to their position: Cordillera Occidental , Central , and Oriental . Various local names are used for the cordilleras in Ecuador , Peru , Bolivia , Chile and Argentina . Such mountain systems have a complex structure, which is usually the result of folding and faulting accompanied by volcanic activity . In South America,

270-654: The Peruvian War of Independence , it was named as a very illustrious and faithful city by General Jose de San Martin . During the War of the Pacific , Huamachuco was the scene of the Battle of Huamachuco (10 July 1883), the final episode of the Pacific War where troops led by Andrés Avelino Cáceres were defeated by Chilean troops under Colonel Alejandro Gorostiaga . It is not clear whether

300-634: The Marcahuamachuco complex reveals the importance of its constructions and their function, a factor that has moved the Peruvian Government to support the conservation of this immense archaeological site by recently establishing funding for a major project for conservation of what visitors have denominated “The Machu Picchu of the North”. More recently the Minister of Culture Juan Ossio denotes the importance of

330-665: The North" and "The Jewel of La Libertad." Construction of Marcahuamachuco began around AD 400, during the Andean Middle Horizon period and continued until approximately 800 AD. This was well before the Wari culture and the later imperial expansion of the Incas . Before being conquered by the Incas in the 14th century, Marcahuamachuco was known as northern Peru's most important political, economic and military center. Researchers believed that

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360-564: The Quechua word waman which means falcon, as it has no known meaning in Kulyi, a poorly attested extinct language, while chuco is of likely Kulyi origin, meaning earth, land, region, or country, being a commonly used term throughout the toponymy of the region, alternatively written as chugo . Otherwise, chuco can be translated as helmet or headwear in Quechua, which would give the city the meaning of "falcon hat", however, modern linguists deny that such

390-548: The University's Museum of Anthropology, during two years of field work McCown excavated between the monumental galleries. His publication described the site in more detail, and he drew more precise and elaborate maps of the archaeological site, and presented a chronological sequence to explain the cultural development of Marcahuamachuco. In 1944 archaeologist Hans Horkheimer published photographs from Marcahuamachuco, which showed stone heads similar to those of Chavin . John Thatcher,

420-511: The continued effects of natural elements and weather. The site's location, in the northern Peruvian highlands of La Libertad, was until recently a difficult to access place. Today a new road makes it accessible on three and a half hours ride from the city of Trujillo, the third largest on the country's Pacific coast, and location of major Moche heritage sites. The domestic residences are multi-storied galleries which originally housed numerous individual families. The massiveness and monumentality of

450-675: The demographic collapse following the end of the Middle Horizon era (Wari state's demise), rather population growth appears to be continuous in the area. Indigenous settlement patterns within the Huamachuco area can be divided into 8 phases: The Tuscan phase, the penultimate phase, corresponds to the historical autonomous domain of Huamachuco. And the Santa Barbara phase corresponds to the Inca domination of Huamachuco. The Huamachuco domain or kingdom probably established its capital at Marcahuamachuco,

480-482: The domesticated camelids: alpacas and llamas. Huamachuco's deep valley slopes show evidence of deliberate farming of native Andean trees and shrub vegetation. It appears that in prehistoric times, the temperature of the land was slightly warmer than today, allowing agriculture at elevations 100–300 m. higher than is possible in the 20th and 21st centuries. Huamachuco has a subtropical highland climate ( Köppen : Cwb ) with consistently cool temperatures. Huamachuco has

510-515: The later Middle Period (AD 700–900) followed into the Intermediate Late Horizon (until around 1200), archaeological evidence suggests that human burials were made within the walls. These contributed to the ceremonial functions of the site. Marcahuamachuco probably had oracles, who attracted people from the northern Andes, the areas that today comprise Peru and Ecuador. The cult was probably related to deities, an old cult to Ataujo , and

540-544: The name of the city comes from the Kulyi language , the autochthonous language of the area, or from Quechua, a language from central Peru that reached its heyday during the Inca Empire . Most scholars believe the name to be of a mixed origin between both languages, it would mean "land of falcons" or "country of falcons". The name Huamachuco can be divided into two words, "huama" and "chuco", it has been postulated that huama comes from

570-464: The north and lesser-known cultures of the Maranon . Built defensively on top of an isolated highland mesa that is 5 kilometers long and 500 meters wide, with a vast view of the surroundings, Marcahuamachuco contains several major compounds. These were surrounded by curved stone walls as high as 12 meters. The remains of inner galleries, rooms and plazas suggest administrative and ceremonial functions. During

600-497: The official Inca pantheon, whose shrine was located in the center of Huamachucos' territory, archaeologists have identified the mountain of Cerro Icchal with Catequil (both as the seat of the wak'a and as the wak'a himself), the ruins of Namanchugo, Catequil's main sanctuary, are situated at the hillfoot of the Cerro Icchal mountain, although it has been largely destroyed by Atawallpa and colonial priests, its magnificence and importance

630-522: The ranges include numerous volcanic peaks . The Andes cordillera has Ojos del Salado , the highest active volcano in the world and second-highest point in the Western Hemisphere (though not itself a volcano, Argentina's Aconcagua , at 6,960 m or 22,830 ft, is the highest point in the Western Hemisphere). Some of the volcanoes have been active in historical times . Aside from

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660-518: The ruins of Marcahuamachuco shows evident occupation since the Early-Huamachuco phase up to the Tuscan phase. Following the Inca conquest, the Marcahuamachuco population was likely resettled where the modern town of Huamachuco stands today. The town of Huamachuco was originally built by the Inca as their main installation in the zone, Huamachuco became the capital seat of an Inca province ( wamani ) of

690-441: The same name. The Inca town of Huamachuco doesn't seem to have been built upon any previous settlement, the pre-Inca hill fort of Cerro Tuscán, overlooking the town, seems to have been enhanced to protect the Inca settlement. With the Incas came enclaves of settlers called mitmaqkuna and an extensive system of tambos was built in the area, both things supported by archaeological research. The Inca administrative center of Huamachuco

720-409: The site and names Marcahuamachuco, Wanuku Pampa and Kuelap as the major archaeological tourist destinations, at equal level to Machu Picchu . In May 2011, Global Heritage Fund (GHF) announced that it will provide funding and technical expertise for a conservation at Marcahuamachuco. Cordillera A cordillera is a small chain and/or network system of mountain ranges , such as those in

750-505: The site as an oracle center, and for religious and political ceremonies. In the later stages of the culture, it was used as a burial site for the elite. Its influence extended through much of northern Peru and contemporary southern Ecuador. This importance may have been related to trade with its neighbors between AD 650 and 700, the Mochica to the west, the Recuay culture to the south, Cajamarca in

780-503: The site to Kuelap . The first formal archaeological research in Marcahuamachuco was conducted during three months in 1900 by Max Uhle and Julio C. Tello under the auspices of the University of California, Berkeley (UC). Uhle photographed the site and corrected the previous maps prepared by Wiener. His research was followed in 1941-42 by Theodore McCown of UC. In addition to reviewing Uhle's writings and collected specimens stored at

810-457: The town exhibits early occupations of ancient Andean civilizations. Before the advent of the Incas the area was united under a single political entity referred to as the "Señorio de Huamachuco" (Huamachuco lordship) by colonial chroniclers, a Kulyi-speaking polity that had as their main deity the thunder god of Catequil, an oracle and the principal wak'a of the Huamachucos, later incorporated into

840-580: The west coast of the Americas . The term is borrowed from Spanish , where the word comes from cordilla , a diminutive of cuerda ('rope'). The term is most commonly used in physical geography and is particularly applied to the various large mountain systems of the American Cordillera , such as the Andes of South America , and less frequently to other mountain ranges in the " ridge " that rims

870-457: Was a stopover on the main Inca highway of Cusco to Quito, the " Qhapaq Ñan " or "Royal Road". The Incas built at least 215 colca storehouses on the hillslopes surrounding the town, roughly half of these have floors elevated on stone pillars, the other storerooms have canals running under the floors, these were probably for tubers. The Spanish foundation of Huamachuco was made in 1553 by Augustinian missionaries on top of Inca's Huamachuco. During

900-474: Was recorded by colonial chroniclers, Catequil was a famous god venerated through the northern Peruvian highlands and beyond since pre-Inca times, pilgrims seeking to find answers were one of the main sources of income to the Huamachucos, the shrine prosperity is perhaps one of the reasons why the area surrounding Huamachuco does not seem to have been seriously affected, as large parts of the Peruvian highlands were, by

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