The Elqui River starts in the west

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

and flows into the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...

near the

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

an city of La Serena. It is a

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented grapes. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different ...

and pisco producing area. Vicuña, the main town of the middle valley, was the home of

Nobel Laureate The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make o ...

poet Gabriela Mistral.

Indigenous cultures of the Elqui Valley

About a quarter of the toponymy in Elqui Valley is of indigenous origin, overwhelmingly Quechua and

Mapuche The Mapuche ( (Mapuche & Spanish: )) are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who s ...

. There is scant

Diaguita The Diaguita people are a group of South American indigenous people native to the Chilean Norte Chico and the Argentine Northwest. Western or Chilean Diaguitas lived mainly in the Transverse Valleys which incised in a semi-arid environment. E ...

(Kakan) toponimy known in the area despite it being considered a homeland of that people by various authors. Quechua toponimy is related to valleys incorporation to the Inca Empire in the late 15th and early 16th-century. Some Mapuche toponimy posdates Inca rule, but other may be coeval or even precede it. Toponyms recognised as Nahua,

Kunza Kunza is an extinct language isolate once spoken in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile and southern Peru by the Atacama people, who have since shifted to Spanish. The last speaker was documented in 1949. Other names and spellings include Cunza ...

, Aymara and Taino make together up less than 10% of the all placenames in Elqui Valley. It is generally accepted that incorporation of north-central Chile to 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 adm ...

was through warfare which caused a severe

depopulation A population decline (also sometimes called underpopulation, depopulation, or population collapse) in humans is a reduction in a human population size. Over the long term, stretching from prehistory to the present, Earth's total human population ...

in the Transverse Valleys of Norte Chico, the wider Diaguita homeland. Chilean toponimy in

Tarija Tarija or San Bernardo de la Frontera de Tarixa is a city in southern Bolivia. Founded in 1574, Tarija is the largest city and capital and municipality within the Tarija Department, with an airport ( Capitán Oriel Lea Plaza Airport, (TJA)) off ...

, Bolivia, including "Erqui" along with other evidence have been interpreted to suggest that Incas deported defeated tribes from Elqui Valley to southern Bolivia. After or during conquest Incas would have settled foreign tribes in Elqui Valley, and ended up imposing Quechua placenames on the local geography. There is uncertainty about the date of these transfers. Chronicler

Diego de Rosales Diego de Rosales ( Madrid, 1601 - Santiago, 1677) was a Spanish chronicler and author of ''Historia General del Reino de Chile''. He studied in his hometown, where he also joined the Society of Jesus. He came to Chile in the year 1629, without ...

tells of an anti-Inca rebellion in the Diaguita lands of Coquimbo and

Copiapó Copiapó () is a city and commune in northern Chile, located about 65 kilometers east of the coastal town of Caldera. Founded on December 8, 1744, it is the capital of Copiapó Province and Atacama Region. Copiapó lies about 800 km nor ...

concurrent with the Inca Civil War. This rebellion would have been brutally repressed by the Incas who gave rebels "great chastise".

References

{{Coord, 29, 53, 40, S, 71, 16, 30, W, region:CL_type:waterbody_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Rivers of Chile Rivers of Coquimbo Region

Indigenous cultures of the Elqui Valley

See also

References