Pampachiri Stone Forest

The bosque de piedras at Pampachiri is a spread of volcanic tuff, ash laid down by eruptions of the Qarwarasu volcano and then eroded into hundreds of pale spires and cones across a plateau at around 3,600 metres. Tuff is soft enough to cut with hand tools, and people did: many of the cones have doorways and interiors carved into them, small chambers used as dwellings and stores, attributed to the Chanka people who dominated this region before the Inca conquest of it. Some were still in use within living memory. The field runs for several kilometres and it is walked rather than driven, with the cones scattered across grazing land. It is genuinely remote - Andahuaylas is a long way from anywhere, and the site is on the road between there and Puquio - and there is little in the way of interpretation on the ground.

What you actually see

• The spires - hundreds of volcanic tuff cones eroded across the plateau.
• The carved interiors - doorways and chambers cut into the soft rock.
• The Chanka association - occupation attributed to the pre-Inca people of this region.
• The scale - a field running several kilometres over grazing land.

When to go

May to September for road and walking conditions. Two to three hours on site. Best reached from Andahuaylas, which is itself a long journey.

Honest expectations

Very remote with few facilities and almost no signage. At 3,600 metres, cold and exposed with no shade. The carved chambers are archaeological and fragile - the rock crumbles under hands and feet. Access is over rough tracks.

Nearby

Pampachiri village is close; Andahuaylas is north.