Tastil

Tastil rose high in the dry mountains of northwestern Argentina, a major settlement before the expansion of Inca rule. Its stone buildings occupied a steep site above the valleys, and terraces supported cultivation nearby. Rock engravings are abundant in the surrounding country. At its height the settlement housed a large population and served as a meeting place for people from different environments.

Caravans brought goods from a region of dispersed farming, herding and mining communities to exchange at Tastil. In the early fifteenth century the arrival of the Inca transformed this network: the settlement lost its former central role as imperial roads and installations reorganised movement through the mountains. Its ruins preserve the traces of a community that linked the highlands with lands farther east.