Tunanmarca

Tunanmarca occupies a high ridge above the northern Mantaro valley in central Peru. Protected by walls and steep ground, it was a large Xauxa settlement with densely packed dwellings, two large central plazas and a broad walled passage separating its residential sectors. Its commanding position overlooked the valleys below and made it one of the major centres of the region before Inca expansion.

The settlement flourished during the late pre-Inca period, roughly between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Archaeological evidence indicates that it was abandoned after the Inca conquest of the Mantaro valley, when Hatun Xauxa emerged as the principal imperial centre. The remains of Tunanmarca preserve the layout of a highland community whose history was reshaped by that conquest.