Pariacaca Mountains

Pariacaca rises above the central Peruvian Andes, its snow-covered peaks revered as the home of a powerful mountain deity. The people of Huarochirí and neighbouring Yauyos told stories of Pariacaca and his contests with other sacred beings. These traditions were recorded in Quechua in the early colonial Huarochirí manuscript. In 1611 Spanish priests destroyed a shrine on the mountain during a campaign against indigenous worship, but the stories of Pariacaca endured.