CARANQUIS VESTIGES

During the late period, from 1250 AD until the invasion of the Incas, the Caranqui people were quite numerous in the ancient Ecuadorian Sierra. Nowadays the are located in the current territories of Ibarra, Otavalo, Cayambe; as well as the south of the Guayllabamba valley.

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The Caranqui, was an interesting society: power did not fall on a single chief or cacique, as has been established in documents, chronicles, and anthropological studies of the tolas and pyramids built in a territory of approximately 75 km2. These are a kind of pointless pyramids, some of which have a huge access ramp, which presumably belonged to the caciques or chiefs. As there are several of them, researchers assume that power was not exercised by a single boss or cacique, but by several. The largest complex of them in the area (14 in total) is based on the territory occupied by the Hacienda Zuleta, followed by Cochasquí, a little further south. The place has been visited and studied by researchers such as Elizabeth Currie and Steven Athens.

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You can access some of the field reports (2010, 2013, 2015) and written material about them, at this link.