Ychsma

The Ychsma, more often called Ichma, were the people of the kingdom of Pachacamac on the central Peruvian coast. Their polity arose around 1100 from the ruins of the Wari Empire, covering the Lurin and Rimac valleys south and east of Lima. Their name, recorded as ychma in the earliest Quechua dictionaries, meant the vermilion colour made from cinnabar.

In a desert land they extended the irrigation canals first built by the Lima culture, watering orchards and fields. At Pachacamac they raised at least sixteen truncated adobe pyramids with great access ramps, and other walled sanctuaries studded the Lima plain.

Around 1470 the armies of Tupac Yupanqui, acting for his father Pachacutec, annexed the kingdom. Local lords kept their rank after swearing obedience, and the Incas enlarged Pachacamac with a temple of the Sun and a house of chosen women.