Wari Willka

Wari Willka was a sanctuary of the Wanka people in the Mantaro Valley, south of Huancayo. A spring beside the shrine was revered as their place of origin, from which the first Wanka couple emerged. Stone steps, sacred trees and the water itself formed part of a holy place remembered by sixteenth-century chroniclers.

The sanctuary remained a religious centre under local Wanka authority before the Incas incorporated the valley into their empire. Its importance survived that change of rulers, and people came there on pilgrimage. The Spanish conquest brought assaults on such shrines as part of the campaign against Indigenous worship; the sanctuary and its revered idol also became entangled in the conflict between Manco Inca and Wanka allies of the Spaniards.

The later city of Huancayo lies here.