THE VIRGINS OF THE SUN.

The Inca Empire adopted from earlier cultures several religious institutions to manage the union of the people in the territory it ruled. Among these institutions were the aclla.
Each year a select group of girls called "Virgins of the Sun"(Acllakunas) were chosen by the Inca government representatives, called Apu-Panaca. They collected girls 8 to 10 years old from the provinces and were taken from their families and lived in special dwellings to be prepared for the highest honor -to serve the Sun. The girls selected weren't of noble birth, instead they were village girls gifted with a special beauty reflected from the inside out and their talents radiated naturally. The girls were sent for training in provincial centers to live together in complexes of buildings called acllawasi (house of the chosen women) which were big enough to house up to 200 women in residence.
The girls were trained for about 4 years in religion, spinning and weaving, preparation of sacred food, and brewing chicha. They they became temple priestesses (mamacunas) to become the brides of special soldiers who had distinguished themselves in combat, or maidens in state shrines performing their assigned religious duties. In this case they lived celibate lives, serving the Creator God (Viracocha) in their physical manifestation of live.
The most skilled and physically perfect mamacuna were sent to Cuzco, the capital of the empire, and became the secondary wife or concubine of the Inca and other noblemen. A few were destined to cross over to the world of the dead in a religious ceremony called Capacocha to carry messages to the noblemen already there.
The Capacocha was a solemn sacrifice or royal obligation in which the Inca sent the best representative in order to ensure that humanity's best were sent to join their deities and deliver their messages. The ceremony took place under several circumstances fulfilling religious and political goals and were usually not done in the region from which they originated. It was often associated with high-altitude occurrences at the tops of the Andean mountains. Over 100 ceremonial centers and shrines were built within Inca territories on or near the high summits of the highest mountains. Some mountains were viewed as home to important mountain deities. The ceremonies at these important locations held a great deal of weight.
At the time of the European invasion in the early 16th century, the Virgins numbered several thousand and were governed by a high priestess, the Coya Pasca, a noble woman of royal blood who was the earthly receptor of a very special energy given by the Creator god, Viracocha.