THE ANCASH REGION OF PERU.

The Ancash Region of Peru is a land of contrast. It has two, great longitudinal Valleys: the Alley of Huaylas (Callejon de Huaylas) and the High Maranon (Alto Maranon).
The Alley of Huaylas is an inter-andean Valley in the North-Central Highlands. Due to its location between two mountain ranges it is known as the Alley of Huaylas, whereas Huaylas refers to the territorial division's name during the colonial times (Viceroyalty of Peru).
Going in North direction from Lima, the road climbs to an altitude of 3,945m, from Callejon de Huaylas to Chiquian, where the Lake Cono-Cocha (Warm Lake) at an altitude of 4,050m, marks the head of the Valley. The lake is seen as the headwaters of the santa River which from this point runs 200kms in a Northerly direction, between the Black Mountain Range and the snowcapped White Mountain Range. It is fed by small streams from the Black Mountain Range in the West and the white Mountain Range in the East. The main tributary of the lake is the Tuco River which has its source in Laguna Tuco at 5,000m above sea level at one of the glacier tongues of Nevado de Tuco. The village Cono-Cocha is located on the western shore of the lake, where connecting roads to Lima, Pativilca, Huaraz and Chiquian are crossing. Despite its altitude, the lake is reach in fish; among others, salmon and trout are found. A unique species of frogs also are distinctively found only in that lake.
The regional copper and zinc mining company Antamina, in the hands of international investors has been accused of lowering waters levels of the Cono-Cocha Lake and thus affecting plant and animal species, and contaminating the Region with toxic mineral residues. This damage, done on the sacred land that once belonged to people who really respect it, is not going to be forgotten by the spirits who still watch the land, only it is a matter of time to see how the reversal process begin to affect in the same measure to the ones responsible for it.
Huaraz, the capital of Ancash, is the largest city in the Alley (Callejon), located at 3,000m above sea level. In the Valley North of Huaraz there are the towns Carhuaz, Yungay and Caraz which is considered the large city in the Valley.
Yungay is located in the Alley on the Santa River at an elevation of approximately 2,500m, 450km North of Lima, Peru's capital. East of the small town are the Mountain ridges of the snow-covered White Mountain Range, with Huascaran, Peru's highest mountain, no more than 15km East of Yungay.
A remarkable event if the history of Peru happened in Yungay, where in the Guitarrero Cave, in 1969, the US archaeologist Thomas F. Lynch (Cornell University), discovered cultural remains from c.10,000 BC, making this place "one of the great testimonies of the origin of agriculture in America."
The Guitarrero Cave is located in the Alley of Huaylas Valley, 50m above the Santa River and at 2,580m above the sea level. Some of the earliest cultivated plants in South America have been found in the cave. They include: Aji Pepper, Oca, Aji, Common bean, Pallar, Lucuma, Olluco, Zapallo, Corn.
On May 31, 1970 the Ancash earthquake caused a substantial part of the North Side of a mountain, Nevado Huascaran to fall. This caused a debris avalanche, burying the town of Yungay and killing instantly 20,000 people. More than 50 million cubic meters of debris slid approximately 15 kms downhill at an angle of about 14 degrees. Speeds between 450km/h to 980km/h were achieved. The current town was rebuild 1500 m North of the destroyed city.