P
PACHACAMAC
This term referred to two different, but ultimately interrelated, identities and
concepts in Tahuantinsuyu: first, a pilgrimage center on the central coast of Peru,
and second, a deity in the Inca pantheon.
The archaeological ruins that were the site of the great oracle and pilgrimage
center of Pachacamac are located on the north bank of the Lurín River, whose
waters flow into the Pacific Ocean. The Lurín River is the first major river valley
south of the Rimac River, the location of present-day Lima. The lower Rimac
and Lurín valleys formed the heartland of a pre-Inca kingdom, known as the
Senorío de Ychsma (Kingdom of Ychsma). As the site of a powerful oracle,
Pachacamac had served as a major pilgrimage center since long before the time
of the Incas, and perhaps even of the Ychsma peoples themselves, going back at
least to the late Middle Horizon (around AD 600–900; see Chronology, Pre-
Inca).
The oracle of Pachacamac attracted adherents and supplicants from the coast
and highlands of the central Andes. The oracle itself, a tall, elaborately sculpted
wooden image, was located in a small chamber at the heart of the site. An early
Spanish visitor, Miguel de Estete (see Chronicles, Cajamarca), described the
room as “a very dark chamber with a close fetid smell. Here there was a very
dirty idol made of wood and they say that this is their God who created them and
sustains them.” The Spaniards promptly set about destroying the idol.
The Incas were intent on controlling Pachacamac from the earliest decades of
their expansion beyond the Cuzco basin. Their objective seems to have been not
only to control and perhaps benefit from the great wealth of tribute brought to
the oracle by pilgrims, but also to establish a place for their own deity, Inti, the
Sun, adjacent to the powerful oracle and to win the hearts and minds of
conquered peoples who worshipped Pachacamac. Though they built a massive
Temple of the Sun at the western edge of Pachacamac, they allowed the old
oracle of Pachacamac to continue to function and to receive supplicants. To
accommodate the influx of pilgrims, the Incas built a so-called Plaza of the
Pilgrims, a large rectangular space that may have been designed to receive the
pilgrims and their caravans of camelids carrying offerings for the oracle. The