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Coropuna
Nevado Coropuna is the largest and highest volcano in Peru, attaining an impressive elevation of . It is located about northwest of Arequipa, the second largest city in Peru.
This massive ice-covered stratovolcano complex has a summit plateau which extends over 12 x 20 km , with six separate summit cones rising above it. Three summits have over 300m of prominence , the true summit, 6425m, is at the northwest corner of the plateau. The southwest (Casulla) summit has an elevation of 6377m on the Peruvian IGM map but may be equal or greater in height depending on the depth of seasonal snow. A further summit with over 300m prominence is Coropuna Este 6307m. A permanent ice cap of about in area covers the summit region, extending down to roughly on the north side and on the south. Vertical relief on the south flank exceeds over a distance of less than .
The name Coropuna means "shrine on the plateau" in Quechua. Coropuna was (and still is) one of the most sacred mountains in Peru, and in 1553 its temple was claimed to be the fifth most important shrine in the Inca Empire by the chronicler, Cieza de Leon. In 1982 Peruvian archaeologist Jose Antonio Chavez was able to briefly visit an Inca site called Achaymarca, which he felt was a likely candidate to be the temple of Coropuna. In 1989 Chavez and Johan Reinhard led an expedition to visit Achaymarca and surveyed the central ruins at 4,030 m , which was part of a complex of over 200 structures, including an Inca ceremonial platform (ushnu). They also traced an Inca trail up to 5,500 m on the western slope of the mountain, where it disappeared beneath the glacier ice. Along this trail was an Inca site at 5,090 m that they named Ajocancha. In 1996 they organized another expedition which found wool and llama bones at 5,760 m , llama bones and shards at 5,947 m , and wood at 6,200 m , providing evidence of pre-Columbian ascents.
Another large Inca site, Maucallacta, has been investigated by Peruvian and Polish archaeologists in recent years. It lies several km to the east of Achaymarca at the head of a separate drainage system and also contains an ushnu and numerous structures. Thus two "temples" of primary importance had been established by the Incas on Coropuna's slopes.
See also
List of volcanoes in Peru
References
Reinhard, Johan (1999). "Coropuna: Lost Mountain Temple of the Incas." South American Explorers Journal 58: 5, 26-30.
Reinhard, Johan (2005). The Ice Maiden: Inca Mummies, Mountain Gods, and Sacred Sites in the Andes. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society. ISBN 0-7922-6838-5.
Ziolkowski, Mariusz (2008). "Coropuna y Solimana: Los Oraculos de Condersuyos." In Adivinacion y oraculos en le Mundo Andino Antiguo, Curatola, Marco and Mariusz Ziolkowski (eds.), pp. 121159. Fundo Editorial de la Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru, Lima.
External links
Coropuna on Summitpost
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Coropuna
