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Yungay, Peru
Yungay was a town in the Ancash Region in north central Peru, South America.
Location
Yungay was located in the Callejon de Huaylas on Rio Santa at an elevation of 2,500 m, 450 km north of Lima, the country's capital. East of the small town there are the mountain ridges of snow-covered Cordillera Blanca, with Huascaran, Peru's highest mountain, no more than 15 km east of Yungay.
Yungay was the capital of Yungay Province, as well as the main town in the Yungay District. Yungay Province has a population of 60,000 (2000 estimate). The Province of Yungay occupies part of the Callejon de Huaylas, the Conchucos Valley (Yanama), the coast of Ancash (Quillo) and the Huascaran National Park.
History
The "Restoration" army, a Chilean-Peruvian army during the War of the Confederation, defeated the army of the Peru-Bolivian Confederation during the Battle of Yungay on January 20, 1839, marking the dissolution of the short-lived confederacy.
A remarkable event of the history of Peru happened in Yungay, where in the Guitarrero Cave US archeologist Thomas F. Lynch discovered very old cultural vestiges from circa 10,000 BCE, making this place "one of the great testimonies of the origin of agriculture in America".
Ancash Earthquake
On May 31, 1970 a landslide caused by the 1970 Ancash earthquake buried the whole town, killing 17,000 persons. Only 400 people survived, most of whom were in the cemetery and stadium at the time of the earthquake, as these zones were the highest in town.
The Peruvian government has forbidden excavation in the area where the old town of Yungay is buried, declaring it a national cemetery.
Pop Culture Reference
A television commercial for a Peruvian language institute made the city popular, when it showed an American tourist talking to a Peruvian security guard, telling him that she had fallen madly in love with him, saying "I love you guy". The security guard didn't speak English, so he thought she was asking about a street named after the city of 'Yungay'. The TV ad became very popular in Peru and has become part of the country's pop culture.
External links
Caves
Guitarrero caves near Yungay (Peru). First agriculture evidence of Peru 10,000 years ago (maps and fotos)
Earthquake of 31 May 1970
Earthquake 31 May 1970 (chimboteonline)
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Yungay, Peru
