The mythical Yunga center of Hurin Ychsma - Pachacámac

"Wednesday January 16, 1533; Captain Hernando Pizarro left the city of Caxamalca with 20 soldiers". That is the way in which Miguel de Estete began the narration of the journey of Hernando Pizarro by orders of his brother the Governor Francisco Pizarro when going from Cajamarca to Pachacámac. In a letter that Hernando Pizarro wrote to the Oidores of Santo Domingo he told them "it took 22 days before we arrived to the sacred city, 15 went by the mountains and the others by the ocean coast".

When the Spanish expedition arrived to the Rímac Valley (Lima) there was a violent earthquake. The peasants that accompany the expedition run away believing that Pachacámac god was angry because of the presence of the newcomers to the ceremonial center.

Pachacámac is a quechua name. "Pacha" means world and "Camac" means to animate. In that way Pachacámac means "the one who animates the world. (A. Jiménez B. 1987)

The sacred city of Hurin Ychsma Pachacámac was created in the union of the sacred geography of the mountains and the coast of the old Peru. Defined by the encounter of the Mother Land with the Mother Water, fertilized with a circle of cultural heroes, semi- gods and gods like Kon, Vichama, Pachacámac or Inti, with solar and pluvial concepts.

The political and administrative creation of Lurin Ychsma and / or Hanan Ychsma began when the Inca Túpac Yupanqui ordered the dual reorganization. Around 1570 - 80 AD the presence of the Inca in the central coast, after his normal pilgrimage to Pachacámac, originated the change in the name of the valley and of the divinity itself to Pachacámac.

Ychsma flourished during its pre-Inca era in the central coast, on the base of a ceremonial center with religious and commercial services.

After the Inca conquest of these territories, the coastal population was reorganized in-groups according to their habilities in work and production. They conserved a dual social-political organizational system and the division of Anan and Lurin.

The Incas ordered the building of temples in the Sacred City of Pachácamac. Among them "Templo de Inti" (Sun Temple) in front of the ocean, the "Casa de las Mujeres Escogidas" or "Acllahuasi" (House of the Chosen Women) near the Urpiwachak Lagoon and the "Palacio de Tauri Chumpi" (Tauri Chumpi Palace), who was the governor or "Curaca", located near the Lurin River.

Towards the interior of the Sacred Valley of Lima (Lurin), there are some archaeological centers that were main and secondary capitals depending on Pachacámac, such as Pampa de Flores, Tijerales and Panquilma. All of them built in the shape of a pyramid with ramps.

There were also built administrative centers in the middle valley such as Huaycán, Chontay, Nieve-Nieve and Avillay. All built as "Tambos" (places were they kept food) and located near the Inca royal trail, joining Pachacámac with Huarochirí and Jauja (in the mountains). They had as central axes two pre-Colombian adoration centers: one that was high in the Pariaca mountains with the idol Yaro, and the other near the ocean, Pachacámac, with the idol Iskay Huari.

Pachacámac was the most important sacred city of the Peruvian coast during the pre-Inca and Inca eras. People from all the Empire visited this religious center to communicate with their gods and offer their sacrifices.

The Sacred City of Pachacámac it's located at 19.26 miles (31 km) S of Lima.

Lic. Ponciano Paredes Botoni.