Huánuco Pampa

Huánuco Pampa covers around two square kilometres of high puna at 3,700 metres and it is one of the best-preserved Inca provincial capitals anywhere - a planned city of some four thousand structures arranged around an enormous plaza, with an ushnu at its centre: a stepped stone platform, finely built, with carved pumas flanking the entrance, from which the state conducted ceremony and administration. Around the plaza are residential and administrative sectors, a kallanka, and the acllahuasi where chosen women wove and brewed for the state. On the ridge above stand more than five hundred qollqas, the round and rectangular storehouses that held the province's tribute. The city was built after the Inca conquest of the region and abandoned soon after the Spanish arrival, never overbuilt, which is why the plan survives so completely. It is remote, and visitors are few.

What you actually see

• The ushnu - a finely built stone platform with carved pumas at the plaza centre.
• The plaza - one of the largest Inca ceremonial spaces, with the city planned around it.
• The storehouses - more than five hundred qollqas ranked on the ridge above.
• The preservation - a provincial capital never overbuilt after abandonment.

When to go

May to September; the puna is cold and wet in the rains. Two to four hours to walk the site. Long journey from Huánuco or from the Callejón de Huaylas.

Honest expectations

Remote, with a long rough drive from any city. At 3,700 metres, exposed, cold and windy with no shade. Facilities are minimal. Walking the full site including the storehouses takes hours over uneven ground.

Nearby

La Unión is the nearest town; Huánuco is east and Huaraz west over the mountains.