Wari -the first pan-Andean state- emerged in Ayacucho between 550 and 800 AD. Its capital, also called Wari, is located 25 km north of Huamanga, in the department of Ayacucho (2.740 masl).
Wari is an example of urban planning and pre-Hispanic engineering techniques. Its urban core, stretching over about 400 Ha and home to 40.000 inhabitants is located strategically to gain easy access to the central Coast and Jungle, while lying halfway between the northern and southern Highlands. To control these vast four regions, the Wari state built provincial administrative centers that depended on its capital. The most important were Pikillaqta (Cuzco), Cerro Baul (Moquegua) and Viracochapampa (northern Highlands).
Wari controlled many colonies in different regions that supplied it with resources like turquoises, textiles, cotton, coca and corn. Wari is internally divided in functional sectors. Remake able Cheqowasi sector or cemetery area, is a network of underground funerary chambers at several levels. Built with rectangular, circular and quadrangular slabs, these chambers probably hosted rulers and aristocrats. Another sec-tor, Moradochayoq shows the earliest evidence of the site’s occupation, and provides additional support to the hypothesis of permanent contacts with the Tiawanaku culture that evolved at same time 1.500 km away in the Lake Titicaca basin. This site comprises a small temple built partially underground with ashlar stone, strongly resembling the small Putuni (Tiawanaku) temple, also a partially underground temple. On the other hand, the central god of the Waris was the “god of the scepters”, an adapted version of the Tiawanaku god represented in the so-called Gate of the Sun (Puno). A third sector worth noticing is Capillapata, a large group of trapezoid and rectangular constructions up to 400 meters long and with stone walls over 10 m high. Finally, the Ushpaqoto sector exhibits sculptures of modeled human figures. Evidences of work-shops and warehouses have been found here.
