Country Peru Elevation 3,110 m (10,200 ft) Province Sánchez Carrión Province | Region La Libertad Time zone PET (UTC-5) | |
 | ||
Huamachuco District is one of the districts of the Sánchez Carrión province located in La Libertad Region in Peru. It contains the capital of the province and the important archeological site of Marcahuamachuco, which was active, likely as an oracle center and place for religious and political elites, about 350 CE to 1100 CE.
History
The area is 184 km (114 mi) from Trujillo, the capital of the Region, located closer to the coast.
The ancient wachemines forged culture and language in the heart of the current La Libertad Region, living at a height of 3,210m (10,400 feet) above sea level. This district was long occupied by people who used domesticated animals in the puna (grasslands) and cultivated agricultural crops in the lower part of the terrain. They developed terraced agriculture, which in the region is known as andenenes. It was dominated by the Wari' people who created woven textiles, and many artifacts and tools of a variety of metals, including precious ones.
They built Marcahuamachuco, a large, monumental complex believed to have been used as a political and religious center of the elites of a culture that thrived 350 CE-1100 CE. In the culture's later stages, they interred their elite in the 12-foot-high walls surrounding the monuments. All this was done long before the conquest by the Inca and the later arrival of the Spanish.