The spirit that cares and protects Waqrapukara (Llamapukara)

Waqrapukara is an Inca construction in between canyons of flora and fauna that is very difficult to find and visualize. As expected, the original Inca trail can still be seen and walked on.

Waqrapukara fulfilled many functions among which were religious, social, economic, political, and military ends. This place is around 4300 meters above sea level where it is a bit difficult to carry out agriculture. The people were explosively dedicated to the herding of camelids like llamas, vicuñas, alpacas and guanacos.
Un some rock shelters in the place, you can see cave paintings highlighting the herding of camelids by other settlements before the arrival of the Incas.

The name that is attributed to it is in the Quechua language Waqrapukara and means Waqra: Horn and Pukara: fortress, lookout point. But there is a great discussion about the name of this place since in the Inca times there were no cows and bulls. These animals were brought by the Spaniards.

For this reason, the name is seriously erroneous. By visualizing this construction from the base you can see that in this place the camelids and llamas abound. We can decipher that it has the shape of a llama, a very important animal in the Inca period.

Many archaeological centers have the form of representative animals, for example, the city of Cusco was shaped like a puma, Machupicchu has the shape of a bird as does the archaeological center of Pisaq, among many others.

Then, the name that we could attribute to it would be “Llamapukara”. In the time of the Incas this animal was used for sacrifices of the most important ceremonies such as the Inti Raymi (Sun Festival), because it was considered as a sacred animal, it was also used as a pack animal, the llama transported different products to long distances.

Then the spirit that protects this beautiful and extraordinary place is that of the llama, an animal with a great importance from the past that still lasts today.

Photo reference