The Quebrada de Humahuaca is a narrow mountain

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between Hill, hills or Mountain, mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers ...

located in the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

Jujuy San Salvador de Jujuy (), commonly known as Jujuy and locally often referred to as San Salvador, is the capital and largest city of Jujuy Province in northwest Argentina. Also, it is the seat of the Doctor Manuel Belgrano Department. It lies near ...

in northwest

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, north of

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

(). It is about long, oriented north–south, bordered by the

Altiplano The Altiplano (Spanish for "high plain"), Collao (Quechua and Aymara: Qullaw, meaning "place of the Qulla") or Andean Plateau, in west-central South America, is the most extensive high plateau on Earth outside Tibet. The plateau is located at the ...

in the west and north, by the Sub-

Andean The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the List of mountain ranges#Mountain ranges by length, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range i ...

hills in the east, and by the warm valleys (''Valles Templados'') in the south. The name ''quebrada'' (literally "broken") translates as a deep valley or

ravine A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion.Humahuaca Humahuaca () is a small city in the province of Jujuy, Argentina. Since 2003 declared World Heritage Site by UNESCO at the Paris conference. It has 11,369 inhabitants as per the , and is the principal town (seat) of the Department of Humahuaca. T ...

, a small city of 11,000 inhabitants. The Grande River (''

Río Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio ...

''), which is dry in winter, flows copiously through the Quebrada in the summer. The region has always been a crossroads for economic, social and cultural communication. It has been populated for at least 10,000 years, since the settlement of the first

hunter-gatherer A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...

s, which is evidenced by substantial prehistoric remains. In particular, many stone-walled agricultural terraces, thought to originate more than 1500 years ago, are found throughout the region and are still in use today. The field system links a series of fortified towns called ''pucaras''. The valley was later a caravan road for the

Inca Empire The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, (Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts", "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The admin ...

in the 15th century, then an important link between the

Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata ( es, Virreinato del Río de la Plata or es, Virreinato de las Provincias del Río de la Plata) meaning "River of the Silver", also called "Viceroyalty of the River Plate" in some scholarly writings, in ...

and the

Viceroyalty of Peru The Viceroyalty of Peru ( es, Virreinato del Perú, links=no) was a Spanish imperial provincial administrative district, created in 1542, that originally contained modern-day Peru and most of the Spanish Empire in South America, governed from ...

, as well as a stage for many battles of the

Spanish War of Independence The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain, ...

. The Quebrada de Humahuaca was designated a protected landscape in 2000. UNEP-WCMC (2022). Protected Area Profile for Quebrada de Humahuaca from the World Database of Protected Areas. Accessed 11 April 2022

/ref> It was made a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

on 2 July 2003. Pucará de Tilcara 01.JPG,

Pucará de Tilcara The Pucará de Tilcara is a pre-Inca fortification or '' pukara'' located on a hill just outside (approximately a 15-minute walk) the small town of Tilcara, in the Argentine province of Jujuy. The location was strategically chosen to be easily def ...

Serranía de Hornocal up close near Humahuaca.jpg, Hornocal Cerro de los Siete Colores 05.jpg, Cerro de los Siete Colores,

Purmamarca Purmamarca is a town in the Tumbaya Department of the Jujuy Province in Argentina. Etymology The name of the town can be interpreted as the combination of Aymara language words purma (desert) and marca (city), though desert in that language ca ...

References

External links

UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- Description of the site.

- Official website (in Spanish). *

Landforms of Jujuy Province World Heritage Sites in Argentina Tourist attractions in Jujuy Province Valleys of Argentina Southern Andean Yungas {{Jujuy-geo-stub

See also

References

External links