Rumicucho or Pucara de Rumicucho is an archaeological site of 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 ...

in the parroquia of San Antonio de Pichincha, in

Quito Canton Quito, officially the Metropolitan District of Quito ( es, Distrito Metropolitano de Quito), is a canton in the province of Pichincha, Ecuador. Governance The canton is governed by the same mayor and city council that govern the city of Quito. ...

Pichincha Province Pichincha () is a province of Ecuador located in the northern Sierra region; its capital and largest city is Quito. It is bordered by Imbabura and Esmeraldas to the north, Cotopaxi and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas to the south, Napo and ...

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...

. Rumicucho is a

pucara Pukara (Aymara and Quechuan "fortress", Hispanicized spellings ''pucara, pucará'') is a defensive hilltop site or fortification built by the prehispanic and historic inhabitants of the central Andean area (from Ecuador to central Chile and no ...

(hilltop fortress) located in a straight-line distance north of the city of Quito at an elevation of . Rumicucho in the

Quechua language Quechua (, ; ), usually called ("people's language") in Quechuan languages, is an indigenous language family spoken by the Quechua peoples, primarily living in the Peruvian Andes. Derived from a common ancestral language, it is the most widely ...

means "stone corner", perhaps referring to its strategic location between the territory of the Yumbo people to the east and the chiefdoms of the Pais Caranqui to the north. The Incas probably built Rumicucho between 1480 and 1500 and ruled this area until the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

conquest in the 1530s. Rumicucho has also been called Lulumbamba (fertile plain), a reference to the valley to its west, now mostly urbanized but formerly intensely cultivated. Rumicucho is a popular site for tourists to visit.

Background

Rumicucho is one of more than 100 known pucaras in northern Ecuador, far more than in any other region of the

which indicates the severity of the resistance by the local people to the advance northward by the Incas. Many of the pucaras were built by the

Indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

long before the Inca Empire. The Incas established or strengthened existing pucaras as bases to conquer the chiefdoms of the Pais Caranqui of whom the Cayambe may have been the most powerful. The Inca war against the Pais Caranqui lasted for years, possibly two or three decades. The Inca conquest of northern Ecuador was not completed until the early 16th century.

Description

The archaeological site occupies an area long and wide. The site was probably occupied by pre-Inca cultures, with the Incas adding their customary styles to the existing buildings and walls. Unlike many pucaras Rumicucho is not on a high point of the landscape, but rather is located on a small hill. Its setting identifies it as a crossroads as well as being a fortress. Rumicucho is one of the few pucaras in Ecuador where a substantial amount of Inca material has been found, including domestic items such as cloth, ceramic pots for making Chicha, the fermented Inca drink, implements made of

camelid Camelids are members of the biological family Camelidae, the only currently living family in the suborder Tylopoda. The seven extant members of this group are: dromedary camels, Bactrian camels, wild Bactrian camels, llamas, alpacas, vicuñas, ...

bone, seashells, and metal objects. Rumicucho was a multi-functional base for residence and ceremonies and control of transit and trade as well as defense. The archaeological site consists of 5 terraces stair-stepping up the hill, each with its own particular purpose. The first and second terraces were used for rituals and feasts; the third terrace was for ceremonies, and terraces one and two were probably used for housing and workshops. Rumicucho was also probably used for astronomy and to observe solar events. It is about from the equator and lines up precisely with the snow-capped volcanoes Cayambe east and

Cotopaxi Cotopaxi () is an active stratovolcano in the Andes Mountains, located in Latacunga city of Cotopaxi Province, about south of Quito, and northeast of the city of Latacunga, Ecuador. It is the second highest summit in Ecuador, reaching a h ...

, to the south, suggesting that it was a sacred site."Pucara Rumicucho", ''Archaeological Institute of America.'', https://www.archaeological.org/fieldwork/afob/4187, accessed 17 June 2017 The Incas and pre-Inca peoples had an extensive knowledge of astronomy and often located their installations in places appropriate for observations of solar events, including the equatorial solstice, which they called "the day when man has no shadow."

References

{{reflist Inca Empire Archaeological sites in Ecuador Pichincha Province Tourist attractions in Pichincha Province