Maucallacta

Maucallacta is commonly called Ruins of Maucallacta, Archaeological Site of Maucallacta, Oracle of Maucallacta, Maucallacta an Oracle of the Coropuna Mountain.

The architectural Inca complex of Maucallacta is located above the contemporary village of San Antonio (Administrative District of Pampacolca, Province of Castilla, Department of Arequipa; 72°37’21’’ W, 15°41’07’’ S; 3,700 meters above sea level, and overlooks the neighboring valley. The nearest bigger city, Pampacolca, is located approximately 170 kilometers (approx. 110 miles) north-west of the city of Arequipa in the southern highlands of Peru.

The Archaeological Project “Condesuyos” has been carried out since 1996 by the Center for Pre-Columbian Studies (University of Warsaw, Poland) represented by its Director, Prof. Dr. Mariusz Ziółkowski, and Universidad Católica Santa María (Arequipa, Peru) represented by Dr. Luis Augusto Belan Franco, the Director of the University Archaeological Museum and Dr. Maximo Neira Avendaño – the scientific consultant for the Project. The Project is being carried out in co-operation with Instituto Nacional de Cultura of Peru and covers archaeological investigation in the vicinity of the volcano Coropuna which was frequently mentioned by chroniclers of the 16th and 17th centuries as an oracle, worshiped since pre-Inca times. The architectural complex of Maucallacta, composed of more than two hundred stone buildings and tombs, an Ushno and three huge ceremonial platforms, made of stones and earth, may be considered the principal administrative, pilgrimage and religious center related to the volcano and the most important Inca site discovered in Contisuyu, the Fourth Quarter of the Inca Empire. Maucallacta is being investigated as part of a sub-project which forms part of the Archaeological Project “Condesuyos”

Maucallacta was inaugurated and opened to the visitors on August 29, 2009.

More information about Maucallacta can be found in the web site: www.maucallacta.com [1]