page_title: Paria, Bolivia
section_title: Incas
hierarchical_section_title: Paria, Bolivia / Incas
context_page_description: Paria, Bolivia was an important administrative center of the Inca Empire in the late 15th and 16th centuries CE and was the first Spanish settlement in Bolivia, founded in 1535. The ruins of "Old Paria" are located 2 kilometres east of the present day hamlet of Paria, which had a population of 106 people in 2012. Paria is 27 kilometres northeast of the city of Oruro. It is situated in a cultivated valley at an altitude of 3,767 metres.
  Paria is located in Cercado Province and Oruro Department of Bolivia.
context_section_description: Paria existed as a settlement of the Uru people long before the Inca Empire.  The Inca emperor Topa Inca Yupanqui (ruled 1471-1493) conquered the Paria region while expanding the Inca Empire south from Cuzco.  He selected Paria as capital of Charcas province, a much larger area than what is today called Charcas. The maize crop from Cochabamba to the east passed through Paria en route to Cuzco or was stored in Paria.  Later in the 1520s, soldiers to serve in the Inca military campaigns in the northern Andes gathered in Paria before their journey north.   Paria was located on the royal road (Camino Real) of the Inca which stretched from Quito in the North to the Maule River in present-day Chile.
  Paria under the Incas, in the words of a Catholic priest, was "an administrative and military center, a miniature Cuzco with numerous settlements under its jurisdiction, from where the Inca emperor exercised his sovereignty over Qullasuyu [one of the four main parts of the Inca Empire].  It has temples for Inti, the cult of the Sun of the Incas, convents for ñustas (princesses), civil and military buildings, storage silos (qullqas) and lodging places [tambos]."
caption: The Inca Empire and road system with the location of Paria in present-day Bolivia.