Vilcashuaman, the era of the Wari lords

After the pre-Inca culture of the Paracas, several key regional kingdoms gradually drifted towards the large spaces of the Andean region. This is the case of the Wari, who lived in Lima's valley, more precisely in the Ayacucho mountainous chains between Cusco to the east and the coast. Between 200 and 600 AD, the administrative importance of the 'huacas', temples and centres of local power, were decisive. The Wari lords dominated this central region for a thousand years thanks to strategic visions and remarkable urban conceptions, constituting stone structures, paths, tombs, canals and underground galleries. But it was the Incas who, from the year 1400, extended their empire and subjugated the Wari. It was also them who built the town of Vilcashuaman as an administrative centre. Their domination was total with military strategies in operation and a system of taxes. Overlooking the valley at a height of 11,400ft the administrative city includes notably a huge trapezoidal square, temples and stone terraces as well as several lodgings which housed troops of the Inca army.

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