Huamachuco  Huamachuco (possibily from Quechua "waman", falcon or variable hawk, and Kulyi "chuco", earth or land, "land of falcons") is a town in northern Peru and capital of the province Sánchez Carrión in La Libertad Region. The city is the seat of the Territorial Prelature of Huamachuco. Lake Sausacocha lies to the northeast. About 30 miles away, within the Huamachuco district, is the significant archeological site of Marcahuamachuco. It is a complex of monuments, a prehistoric political and religious center of a culture that thrived 350 CE-1100 CE. The ruins of a Wari city, Viracochapampa, are located 3.5 km north of Huamachuco. Additionally there are many other pre-Columbian ruins around the town. The area surrounding the town exhibits early occupations of ancient Andean civilizations. Before the advent of the Incas the area was united under a single political entity referred to as the "Señorio de Huamachuco" (Huamachuco lordship) by colonial chroniclers, a Kulyi-speaking polity that had as their main deity the thunder god of Catequil, an oracle and the principal "wak'a" of the Huamachucos, later incorporated into the official Inca pantheon, whose shrine was located in the center of Huamachucos' territory, archaeologists have identified the mountain of Cerro Icchal with Catequil (both as the seat of the wak'a and as the wak'a himself), the ruins of Namanchugo, Catequil's main sanctuary, are situated at the hillfoot of the Cerro Icchal mountain, although it has been largely destroyed by Atawallpa and colonial priests, it's magnificence and importance was recorded by colonial chroniclers, Catequil was a famous god venerated through the northern Peruvian highlands and beyond since pre-Inca times, pilgrims seeking to find answers were one of the main sources of income to the Huamachucos, the shrine prosperity is perhaps one of the reasons why the area surrounding Huamachuco does not seem to have been seriously affected, as large parts of the Peruvian highlands were, by the demographic collapse following the end of the Middle Horizon era (Wari state's demise), rather population growth appears to be continuous in the area.