Encyclopedia of the Incas

roads, and numerous other monumental structures. Thus, they transformed the
shrine of Pachacamac into a magnificent sacred city visited by lords from the
farthest reaches of the Inca Empire. When the Spaniards arrived, the sanctuary
covered more than 50 hectares (123 acres).
According to the accounts of the first Spaniards who set foot in the sanctuary,
pilgrims had to fast for several weeks before entering the lowest patio of
Pachacamac’s temple, and they had to wait even longer to be admitted into the
highest patio, where the main priest officiated. Generally, only the most
important ethnic lords could reach this final patio, querying the priest, who
received them seated and with his head covered with a blanket. Afterward, other
priests, called yanac, the “servants” of Pachacamac, took over, entering and
walking backward into the chamber that housed the god’s wooden idol, in order
to “speak” to him. The consultations generally took place at night. In the
darkness of the chamber, maintaining their backs to the idol, the yanac posed
their questions to the god, who answered with a whistle or a hair-raising shriek.
The chronicler Garcilaso de la Vega wrote that the Incas removed minor
deities from Pachacamac, and restricted access to the oracle to “kings and great
lords.” The elitist nature acquired by the oracle is reflected by the fact that burial
in the area surrounding the temple was an honor reserved exclusively for the
bodies of high-ranking lords and priests. People of lower status could be buried
in the sanctuary of another important oracle, Rimac (he who speaks), located on
the left bank of Lima’s river, where the Spaniards later built the Church of Santa
Ana. Coastal ethnic groups worshipped and consulted Rimac about important
matters. The Incas themselves revered it; Huayna Capac, for instance, consulted
it before setting off to conquer the island of Puná, in Ecuador.
Huayna Capac established a privileged relationship with the oracle of
Catequil, an ancient deity of the northern highlands of Peru, linked to Thunder.
He spread the cult of Catequil to Ecuador, where various sacred places
associated with springs are located. In this way, Catequil became one of the most
important oracles in Tahuantinsuyu. It was considered the most “talkative” of all
the oracles, and it was believed to have the faculty to give speech to huacas who
didn’t know how to speak. On the eve of the Spaniards’ arrival, the sanctuary of
Catequil, located on a mountain peak in the Inca province of Huamachuco, was
destroyed by the Inca Atahualpa, after the god predicted that Atahualpa would
lose to his brother Huascar (see Wars, Dynastic). Atahualpa’s extreme reaction
responded to the need to silence the oracle so that its prophecy would not be
repeated to the delegations of peoples from all over the empire who regularly