Panzaleo

The Panzaleo group covers the highland peoples of Ecuador around Quito and Latacunga, among them the Quitu, Guayacundo, Chimbus and Hambatus. Their pre-Inca language, Panzaleo, gave way to Kichwa in the seventeenth century.

The Quitu, who founded Quito, held the valleys beneath the Pichincha volcanoes, which they held sacred. Around 1470 Topa Inca Yupanqui conquered them, and they rose against Huayna Capac with the Cayambis and Caranquis. The Spaniards took Quito in 1534.