MARCA-HUAMA-CHUCO

Marca-Huama-Chuco is an archaeological site of Pre-Inca Ruins in the Northern Peruvian Highlands of La Libertad Region of Peru. The site's location was until recently a difficult place to gain access. Today a new road make it accessible on 3 1/2 hours ride from the city of Trujillo, the 3rd largest on the country's Pacific Coast, and location of many Moche heritage sites.
The place was set atop of the nexus of 3 Mountain Valleys at an altitude of more than 3,200m/10,000ft.
It is considered significant because the site encompasses more than 3 km of land, with massive castles and unique circular doubled-walled structures. The domestic residences were multi-storied galleries which originally housed numerous individual families.
It was built defensively on top of the isolated mesa that is 5 kilometers long and 500 meters wide, with a vast view of the surroundings. The complex contains several major compounds. These were surrounded by curved stone walls as high as 12 meters.
 It is believed that it was an oracle center and used for religious ceremonies because of the remains of inner galleries, rooms and plazas. In the later stages of the culture, it was used as a burial site for the chosen ones because the human burials were found within the walls.
Latest investigations of the site suggested that the occupation may have been seasonal, with a maximum population of 6,000. Their estinmate is based upon the quantity of arable land and water availability.
The construction apparently began around 400 CE and continued until approximately 800 CE. Before being conquered by the Incas, Marca-Huama-Chuco was known as Northern Peru's most important religious, military, political, and economic center.
One of the earliest sketch maps on Marca-Huama-Chuco comes from the 18th century document prepared by Bishop Baltazar Jaime Martinez Companon. Early descriptions from the late 19th century were done by Europeans hunters of gold and silver mines.
Charles Wiener (1851-1913) was an Austrian-French "explorer," best known as the one who travelled extensively in Peru, climbed the I-Lli-Mani and came close to "re-discovering" Machu-Pichu. He published in 1880 the first topographical description of Marca-Huama-Chuco and named its principal compounds. Wiener travelled in Peru in 1875 and was told in Ollanta-y-Tambo about certain ruins, including those at Huayna-Picchu and Machu Picchu, but he was unable to reach them during his visit. He travelled from Ollanta-y-Tambo up over the Panti-Calla Pass until he arrived at the Ur-u-Bamba River at the bridge crossing of Chuqui-Chaca. Consequently, Wiener's own account of his travels were published in 1880 in a book that Wiener wrote named "Peru and Bolivia" (Paris, 1880), containing the description of how locals in Ollanta-y-Tambo had told him about the ancient Inca Towns. He made a detailed map of the urubamba Valley, on which he included 2 peaks and marked them with the names Matcho-Picchu and Huayna-Picchu. The book also contained a map of the Valley of Santa Ana, incorrectly placing Huayna-Picchu south of Matcho-Picchu on the East side of the Ur-u-Bamba.
The map then was published in Paris by the Societe de Geographie in 1877, 3 years before the publication of Wiener's Book.
Hiram Bing-Ham (the ultimate "re-discoverer of Machu-Picchu) was very familiar with Wiener's book.
When a Cuzqueno told Bing-Ham that he had seen "ruins finer than Choque-Quirau" at a place called Huayna-Picchu, Bing-Ham knew what he was talking about because it resembled Wiener's account.
Wiener is mentioned in Mario Vargas Llosa's novel "The Storyteller" as the French-Man who in 1880 came across "2 Machi-Guenga corpses, ritually abandoned in the River," which the French-Man decapitated and added the heads to his collection of curiosities collected in the Peruvian Jungle.