Llullaillaco volcano

The Volcano Llullaillaco forms part of the Qhapaq Ñan - Andean road system-, registered in 2014 as a cultural good No. 1459 of UNESCO.

The Llullaillaco is a stratovolcano located in the Andes Mountains, within the Altiplano, on the border between the Province of Salta (Argentina) and the Region of Antofagasta (Chile). It is considered the second highest active volcano in the world, after Nevado Ojos del Salado, and its last eruption occurred in 1992.

The Llullaillaco seen from Cerro Paranal (at the bottom of the image)

On June 20, 2007, the top of the volcano, where the children of Llullaillaco were found, was declared a National Historic Site by Law 25,444 of the Executive Power of the Argentine Nation.

Toponymy

There are two plausible versions that explain the origin of the name that would be composed of two words.

According to the first and best known, it would come from yacu or llaco, which in Quechua means water, and lulla, which according to the Quechua dictionary of 1608 by González Holguín would mean cheating or lying, it could have referred to a place where water could not be found despite having been expected to find it.

Another possibility is that it derives from llullu, which refers to a soft thing that is born or grows before it hardens according to González Holguín. Llullaillaco could be referred to as an active volcano, where lava flows like water and then hardens, which is seen in clearly visible evidence of past eruptions.

Access

Access to the foot of Llullaillaco is by vehicle or mule. The latter can be rented to the inhabitants of the towns in the area. Access from the Chilean side is through the homonymous national park, by means of dirt roads. These roads end in an area, where climbers usually establish their base camp, at 4600 m s. no. m.

On the Argentine side there are no roads to reach the base, and only a four-wheel drive vehicle can reach the foot of the mountain, at more than 4600 m s. no. m., assuming the path is known.

Inca sanctuary

Momias de Llullaillaco in the province of Salta, Argentina.

Inca sanctuary at the top of the volcano.

On December 1, 1964, Bion González and Juan Harseim climbed Llullaillaco, discovering a High Sanctuary. American archaeologist Johan Reinhard led three expeditions between 1983 and 1985 investigating archaeological sites on the summit and on the slopes of the mountain.

During an expedition led by Johan Reinhard and Argentine archaeologist Constanza Ceruti in 2007, the three Children of Llullaillaco were unearthed, sacrificed on site and mummified by freezing, with an approximate age of 400 years. The mummies are exhibited at the High Mountain Archeology Museum (MAAM) in the province of Salta (Argentina). The corpses correspond to a young 11-year-old woman, known as "the maiden", a girl of about 6 years old, "the lightning girl" and a 4-year-old boy.

Llullaillaco extremophile bacteria

The exceptional state of preservation of the mummies found at the top of the volcano sparked the curiosity of microbiologist Steve Schmidt, from the University of Colorado, USA, who deduced that the microbes that could exist in this extreme environment, if there were any, they would have to be very special extremophiles.

In 2009 Schmidt organized an expedition to the summit of the volcano to take soil samples near the archaeological site. After performing genetic tests on the microbes, his group found several unique strains that had not been described before. The most abundant were from a subset of actinobacteria, the group that gave rise to antibiotics for human use.

Additional bibliography

• Beorchia, Antonio: "The indigenous cemetery of the Llullaillaco Volcano." Revista del Centro de Investigaciones Arqueológica de Alta Montaña 2: 36-42, 1975, St. John.
• Ceruti, María Constanza: Llullaillaco: Sacrifices and Offers in an Inca High Mountain Sanctuary. Jump: EUCASA, 2003* Ceruti, María Constanza: Sacred Summits of the Argentine Northwest1999, Eudeba, Buenos Aires.
• González, Bión: Description of some archaeological sites of the high mountain range of the Andes. CIADAM Magazine 3: 29-30, 1978, San Juan.
• Reinhard, Johan: The Ice Maiden: Inca Mummies, Mountain Gods, and Sacred Sites in the Andes. National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C., 2005.
• Reinhard, Johan and Ceruti, María Constanza: Archaeological Research in the Llullaillaco Volcano: Incaic high mountain ceremonial complex. Jump: EUCASA, 2000.
• Reinhard, Johan: Llullaillaco: Research of the Highest Archaeological Site in the World. Analysis of Archaeology and Ethnology 48/49: 105-129, 1997, Mendoza.
• Reinhard, Johan and Ceruti, María Constanza: Sacred Mountains, Ceremonial Sites and Human Sacrifice Among the Incas. Archaeoastronomy 19: 1-43, 2006.