Panorama Photo

The fortified citadel of Yayno, lying at more than 4100 m on this hill above Pomabamba, is the most impressive work of the so called Recuay culture, which developed in the period 200-600 CE.
The previous Chavín culture, which is considered the first "unifying" Andine culture, dates back to 1000 BC, and its maximum expression is of course the palace at Chavín de Huántar, which was the target of pilgrimages from each zone of Peru.
One of the following cultures, of course, and the last one before Spanish conquest, would have been the Inca empire.
When the news spread that a foreigner had reached Yayno traversing the Cordillera Blanca three times, one by bicycle and two by foot, the municipality of Huayllan (to which Yayno belongs) phoned my hostel "Las Begonias" in Pomabamba asking for an interview.
So the next morning, after two weeks of independent trekking in the Cordillera, I was faced with a new challenge, namely, an interview in Spanish... I do not know if I was able to express anything meaningful, however, I think that this site would be worth of much more attention. It would even deserve to be taken in care by the UNESCO, as is of course Chavín. I do not know if the huge walls of Yayno (which of course can only be guessed here, even more at 500 pixels) can have the same fascination as the underground labyrinths of Chavín, an Andine Cnossos culminating with the mysterious-frightening monolith called the Lanzón. Or of the much more extensive ruins and better conserved (well, also much younger...) ruins of Machu Picchu, which perhaps one day I will see.
But indeed this is a magical place if one takes into account also the location and the Cordillera acting as a background - to this the present panorama tries to hint.
The height of 4100 metres is indeed remarkable, but there is still a long way to the 6723 metres of the highest archeological place of the Andes and indeed of the world, namely, the summit of Volcán Llullaillaco, where the corpses of three children were found, sacrificed on the top of the mountain after a long procession starting from Cuzco (the mountain lies on the border between Chile and Argentina!).
It is of the last week the discovery, on the coast north of Lima, of the corpses of 227 children between 5 and 14 years, sacrificed probably in order to calm down some extreme event related with El Niño.

Larger: https://bit.ly/3DuWohl
Location: -8.88755 -77.45993