Tunanmarca

This important archaeological center was the capital of the Huanca culture. One of the best-preserved sites in the Mantaro Valley, it consists of a series of stone buildings grouped together in circles. “Tunanmarca” is derived from two quechua words: Tunan, meaning high and Marca meaning settlement, and is one of the largest Late Intermediate settlements found in Peru. At the end of the 1970s a group of archeologists from the University of California, directed by Timothy K Earle, conducted studies to determine its antiquity, placing it between 600 and 500 BC.