Inca mythology Inca mythology or religion includes many stories and legends that attempt to explain or symbolize Inca beliefs. Basic beliefs Scholarly research demonstrates that Runa (Quechua speakers) belief systems were integrated with their view of the c ...

, one of the main Inca creation myths was that of the Ayar Brothers who emerged from a cave called Paqariq Tampu (also spelled Paqariqtampu) (

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, a Native South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language **So ...

''paqariy'' to dawn / to be born, ''-q'' a

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...

, '' tampu'' inn, lodge, hispanicized and mixed spellings ''Pacaritambo, Paccarectambo, Paccarec Tambo, Paccarictambo, Paccaric Tambo, Paqariq Tambo, Paccaritambo''). This "house of production" was located on the hill called Tampu T'uqu (Quechua ''t'uqu'' a niche, hole or gap in the wall, today also the modern word for window, hispanicized ''Tambotoco, Tamputoco''). It had three windows. According to the myth, the tribe of Maras emerged from one of the niches, called Maras T'uqu ''(Maras tocco)'' by spontaneous generation. The tribe of Tampus emerged from the ''sut'i t'uqu'' window.

Manco Capac Manco is a male given name, and may refer to: * Manco Capac, also known as Manco Inca and Ayar Manco, according to some historians, founder and first governor of the Inca civilization in Cuzco (KOOZ-Koh), possibly in the early 13th century *Manco In ...

, his three Ayar brothers, and his four Mama sisters, emerged from the chief window in the middle, the ''qhapaq t'uqu''.de Gamboa, P.S., 2015, History of the Incas, Lexington, Another theory held by more obscure groups, tending to dwell on the mysticism of South American Indians is that Paqariq Tampu is a quasi-mythical place believed by these historians to have been flooded by

Lake Titicaca Lake Titicaca (; es, Lago Titicaca ; qu, Titiqaqa Qucha) is a large freshwater lake in the Andes mountains on the border of Bolivia and Peru. It is often called the highest navigable lake in the world. By volume of water and by surface area, ...

. Chronicles like the one of Guaman Poma (Quechua for hawk puma) mention Paqariq Tampu: "They say they came from Titicaca lake and from Tiahuanaco and they entered Tambo Toco and from there eight Inca brothers and sisters came out... Those eight brothers and sisters came out of Pacari Tanbo and they went to their idol huaca of Uana Cauri, coming from Collau towards the city of

Cuzco Cusco, often spelled Cuzco (; qu, Qusqu ()), is a city in Southeastern Peru near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region and of the Cusco Province. The city is the seventh most populous in Peru; ...

". Theories base themselves mainly on tales of the Chasa, another race or tribe thought by most to be as mythical, proclaim the name to actually come from the chasa word Pàchacambo (meaning birthing place of the gods Chaca, who they believed themselves to be.)

Pachacuti Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui ( qu, Pachakutiq Inka Yupanki) was the ninth Sapa Inca (1418–1471/1472) of the Kingdom of Cusco which he transformed into the Inca Empire ( qu, Tawantinsuyu). Most archaeologists now believe that the famous Inca si ...

visited the site and "venerated the locality and showed his feeling by festivals and sacrifices. He placed doors of gold on the window qhapaq tu'uqu, and ordered that from that time forward the locality should be venerated by all, making it a prayer place and '' wak'a'', whither to go to pray for oracles and to sacrifice."

References

G. Urton, The History of a Myth: Pacariqtambo and the Origin of the Inkas (Univ. of Texas Press, 1990) Inca mythology Cusco Region {{SouthAm-myth-stub