The Colca valley was first populated by hunters and gatherers, probably
about 6,000 years ago. Cave art at Mollepunku, near Callalli, is thought to
represent the domestication of the alpaca at about that time. There is little
evidence of continual habitation until two cultures arrived at about the same
time, about a thousand years ago: the Cabanas, Quechua-speaking descendants of
the Wari culture, and the Collaguas, Aymara-speakers from the Puno/Lake
Titicaca region. They constructed vast expanses of agricultural terraces in the
valley, creating irrigation systems to water their crops.
The region takes its
