Llullaillaco

Llullaillaco is a  stratovolcano in the Andes range, in Argentina and Chile. It is the 7th highest mountain in the Andes.

It lies in the Puna de Atacama, a region of very high volcanic peaks on a high plateau within the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places in the world.

 History 
The first recorded ascent was on 1 December 1952, by Bión González and Juan Harseim, from Chile. They found archaeological evidence that people were at the top of Llullaillaco in the pre-Columbian period.

During 1983–1985, American archaeologist Johan Reinhard directed three surveys of archaeological sites on the summit and slopes  of the mountain.

The summit is the highest archaeological site in the world. The mummies of three Inca children were found on it in 1999. These were found by Johan Reinhard and Constanza Ceruti and their expedition. Other artifacts were also found along with the mummies. It is believed that the children were part of a human sacrifice.

 Geography 
The volcano is in the Chile-Argentina boder and is part, on the Chilean part, of the Llullaillaco National Park ().

The Llullaillaco is a stratovolcano. There were eruptions in 1854, 1866 and 1877. Since then, no volcanic activity has been recorded. It is the world´s second highest active volcano, second to Ojos del Salado.

It is an ultra-prominent peak, or Ultra for short, because it has as a summit with a topographic prominence of  or more.

 Gallery 

 Related pages 
 List of volcanoes

 References 

 Other websites 

 Andeshandbook: A Complete Description, history, place names and routes of Llullaillaco
 Llullaillaco at SummitPost.org
 Instituto de Arqueología de Alta Montaña, Universidad Católica de Salta  

Category:Volcanoes of Chile
Category:Mountains of Argentina
Category:Andes
Category:Archaeological sites
Category:Salta Province
Category:Atacama Region