The Santa Valley (Quechua Sancta) is an inter-andean valley in the Ancash Region in the north-central highlands of Peru. Due to its location between two mountain ranges, it is known as Callejón de Huaylas, the Alley of Huaylas, whereas "Huaylas" refers to the territorial division's name during the Viceroyalty of Peru.
Going north from Lima, the road climbs to an altitude of 3,945 m, where the lake Conococha marks the head of the valley. This lake is the main source of Santa River. From here the road descends into the Callejón de Huaylas, demarcated by the Cordillera Blanca ("white range") to the east and the Cordillera Negra ("black range") to the west. To the south rise the summits of the Huayhuash mountain range.
Huaraz, the capital of Ancash, is the largest city in the Callejón, located at 3,000 m above sea level. In the valley north of Huaraz there are the towns Carhuaz, Yungay (the site of a major earthquake and landslide in 1970 that buried the town and killed over 20,000 people) and Caraz which is considered the last city in the valley.
Location
The Callejón de Huaylas stretches for 150 km in the Ancash Region of Peru. The Santa river runs along the valley floor in a north-westerly direction. The valley's southern extreme begins at 4,000 m above sea level, and descends to 2,000 m at its northern end past the city of Caraz where the Santa River leaves the valley. It is bordered by two mountain ranges, the snow-covered Cordillera Blanca (White Mountain Range) to the east, where many climbable peaks boast year-round snow above 5,000 m, and the Cordillera Negra (Black Mountain Range) to the west, reaching over 4,000 m but typically getting no snow as it is exposed to warm coastal winds on its western flank. Nevado Huascarán (6,746 m), the highest peak of Peru, is located in the Cordillera Blanca above the town of Yungay.
History
The Callejón de Huaylas has a rich history going back thousands of years. Relatively little survives from the preceramic period in this region, but modern work by Thomas F. Lynch and his team has suggested a civilization which was integrated with the cultures living on the coastal plain. The Callejón contains, within a short distance, many of the major eco-zones of the Andes, and Lynch suggests that this would have allowed considerable diversity of occupations. Guitarrero cave, on the eastern slopes of the Cordillera Negra, serves as one of the primary preceramic sites for the region. Within, Lynch and his team have documented many preserved plant species, including varieties of domesticated maize and vegetal material from exclusively coastal species. Radiocarbon dating of these organic remains demonstrate that human habitation of the cordillera is at least 10,000 years old, and perhaps even more. Elsewhere, the preceramic site of Quebrada Perrón in the northern Callejón contains evidence of complex stone-working and continuous use for thousands of years as a stone workshop.
While these preceramic civilizations precede it, the development of the Chavin Culture at Chavin de Hunatár is often the first discussed due to the importance of the site. Chavin de Hunatár is a ruined ceremonial complex located on a pass between the Conchucos Valley and the Callejón de Huaylas itself. Its relatively low elevation lends it access to the many nearby biomes, from the tropical forest to the mountain peaks to the coastal region. Chavin de Hunatár developed over several hundred years, from 900 BCE to 200 BCE, before later fading from the record. Its influence extended from the Callejón de Huaylas hundreds of kilometers away, as far as the Jequetepeque and Lambayeque Valleys, as evidenced by Chavin-style pottery and construction being found at these sites. In distant Karwa, there are Chavin-style textiles, demonstrating Chavin’s cultural reach. Chavin also served as a religious and pilgrimage center, and we see distant cultures, such as Pacopampa and Kuntur Wasi, changing their temple architecture and craftsmanship to reflect the new Chavin cult. Chavin art includes designs such as jaguars, caymans and other jungle animals, hinting that the Chavin network extended far distant from its home in the Callejón de Huaylas, to the coasts and the jungle beyond.