page_title: Pampas Grande
section_title: Presence in ancient Peru and the Inca Empire
hierarchical_section_title: Pampas Grande / History / Presence in ancient Peru and the Inca Empire
caption_attribution_description: Español: Mapa del corregimiento de Huaylas en 1701
context_page_description: Pampas Grande, founded as San Jerónimo de Pampas, It is a Peruvian town, capital of the homonymous district, located in the central part of the so-called Callejón de Huaylas in the Ancash region, about 4 hours from Huaraz and 9 from Lima. It has an approximate population of 1044 inhabitants, located at an average altitude of 3690 m a.s.l. It has a cold climate with average temperatures of 17 °C in summer and 12 °C in winter.
  The history of Pampas Grande before the arrival of the Spanish is very little known. The Kajur archaeological site, located at 1250 meters above sea level, evidences one of the oldest human settlements in this part of the Cordillera Negra. The Cuchicoto archaeological site located near the Canchón summit shows the influence of the Recuay culture during the Early Intermediate period. Inca domination occurred between approximately 1430 and 1450, during the rule of the Sapa Inca Pachacútec. The lordships of huaylas and conchucos were incorporated into Tahuantinsuyo after a fierce invasion by the Inca Cápac Yupanqui, brother and general of the Sapa Inca, who was forced to withdraw and build the Maraycalle tambo in Yauya.
context_section_description: The archaeological site of Kajur,6 located at 1250 masl, evidences one of the oldest human settlements in this part of the Cordillera Negra by hunters and gatherers. The ancient man from the Casma Valley came as a hunter and later became sedentary, developing the domestication of plants and auquénidos establishing himself in permanent places. The archaeological site of Cuchicoto located near the summit of Canchón shows the influence of Recuay culture during the Early Intermediate.
  The priest Augusto Soriano Infante collected in 1953 a myth about the pre-Inca foundation of Pampas Grande.
  This story speaks of two demigods, one male: Canchón and the other female: Huascarán.
  They reigned in Pampas Grande and were husbands. Huascarán was a beautiful woman with light skin; She was an excellent cook; She prepared plenty of food for her 32 children and her husband. The flavor of its viands delighted Canchón. Happiness was clouded when Huascarán discovered that Canchón had a lover, Sutoc, a woman with dark skin who seduced Canchón with less abundant but more exquisite meals, had a nephew named Caullo who secretly was in love with Huascarán. In revenge for her husband's infidelity, Huascarán helped by Caullo, cut off Canchon's genitals cursing him so that in the future it would be sexually human waste. His testicles, which were thrown into the mountain, turned into cliffs when rolling, one was called Cuyocrumi (Stone that moves) and the other Huerururumi (Stone similar to the Huayruro's seed, jungle plant). Likewise, Canchón, when petrified, originated a summit of the same name. Sutoc suffered the same fate giving rise to another summit surrounded by his also petrified children. Before petrifying, he cursed Caullo, predicting that his bones would serve as stakes to tie animals and make pinculi. From this tragedy the Cordillera Negra was born.
  
  Huascarán abandoned his home and his land; She headed north toward her, followed by her 32 children, who lagged behind as little ones; the oldest who went the fastest became the summits of Huantsan and Yerupajá. Tired and sad she rested in Asiac (stinking) where she lost a diaper from her tender little boy who became a glacier. There he urinated and defecated and as soon as he did his urine originated the lake of Conococha (warm lake) and its excreta to rocky tops. She continued her march, exhausted she sat down to rest in front of Yungay, there she became a high mountain of ice with two heads, because she carried her last son who was a baby on her back. Her other children who failed to reach it by petrifying one after another became other peaks. This is how the Cordillera Blanca was formed with a high number of heleros and lagoons as a result of the tears of Huascarán and his sons
  — Augusto Soriano Infante
  The huaylas group covered the valley of the Santa river called Callejón de Huaylas and a large part of the Cordillera Negra, delimited to the north by the Pato canyon and to the south by the Conococha plateau, which coincides with the current provinces of Recuay, Huaraz, Carhuaz, Yungay and the province of Huaylas. 
  After a bloody and long campaign of resistance against the expanding Inca Empire led by Huayna Cápac, the Lordship of Huaylas, confederated with the Conchucos, Piscopampas, Siguas and Huaris, surrendered to the Inca sapa at a high cost. The most important temple of the Huaylas, Pumacayán was destroyed, and as a vassal, all the curacas of the mentioned ethnic groups were forced to send their daughters with the Inca to join it as secondary wives.
  Following the population order of the Incas, the huaylas were subdivided into two parts: Hanan Huaylas and Hurin Huaylas, territories that included the current provinces of Huaylas, Yungay and Carhuaz in Hanan Huaylas, and the provinces of Huaraz, Recuay and Aija in Hurin Huaylas, Pampas would become part of this subdivision under the Inca administrative center of Recuay Viejo.
caption: District of Huaylas in 1701.
exif: {}