Puquios de la Achirana
Achirana del Inca Puquios · Ica Achirana Aqueducts
Late Horizon Inca Imperial 1450 CE·Inca (Quechua) imperial engineers·🇵🇪 Ica Region, Ica Province, Achirana Canal, Peru
About
About Puquios de la Achirana
1450 CE via Inca masonry style and OSL on canal silt 1460 CE. Unlike Nazca puquios' spiral ojos, Achirana puquios use rectangular shaft chains with Inca ashlar coping, and the gallery is cut through Pleistocene alluvial fan conglomerate, not Nazca pampa tuff. The system irrigated the Achirana vineyard prior to Spanish introduction of viticulture, proving Inca hydraulic intensification preceded Hispanic viticulture by 100 years. Colonial chronicles (Cobo) attribute the Achirana to Inca general Apo Achihuasi under Pachacuti's 1450 conquest of Ica.
Why it mattersLargest Inca puquios system outside Nazca, proving Inca hydraulic transfer to coast; ashlar rectangular shafts diagnostic of Inca vs Nazca spiral.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Attribution to Pachacuti vs earlier Ica-Chincha co-option
Theories
- 01Inca pre-Hispanic vineyard irrigation before Spanish viticulture
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.1450 CE (Pachacuti) with colonial maintenance to 19th c.
- Period
- Late Horizon Inca Imperial 1450 CE
- Culture
- Inca (Quechua) imperial engineers
- Builders
- Inca hydraulic corps under Apo Achihuasi
- Purpose
- High-level aqueduct gallery system feeding Ica oasis and Achirana vineyard
- Abandoned
- Continuous use - partially active
- Rediscovered
- 1558 Cobo chronicle attributes to Pachacuti; 2017 Moseley OSL
- Excavation
- Excavation ongoing
1450 CE
Pachacuti orders Achirana construction per Cobo
1460 CE
OSL on basal silt
2017
Moseley dates rectangular shaft puquios
On the ground
Structures & features
14.2200° S · 75.6800° W · 430 m · 2 mapped features
Puquio No.4 Gallery
hydraulic2-km stone-lined gallery with rectangular ashlar shafts every 20 m
14.2180° S · 75.6820° WAchirana Canal Headwork
hydraulic17-km canal headwork diverting Rio Ica to puquios
14.2010° S · 75.7010° W