Cajamarca in Photos

The valley, the colonial centre, and the sites around the city.

The City

Aerial view over Cajamarca at sunset, the Plaza de Armas lit in the centre of the valley

The city at sunset

Cajamarca spread across the valley at sunset, seen from Santa Apolonia with the hilltop cross in the foreground

Sunset from Santa Apolonia

A cook serving highland dishes at a food stall in a Cajamarca market

Market food stall

Cumbemayo

Two women in wide white hats sitting on the grass beside the open stone water channel at Cumbemayo
A walker with a backpack standing on a rock above the Cumbemayo plateau, the frailones rock pillars on the skyline
A group of visitors dwarfed by the tall weathered rock columns of the Cumbemayo stone forest
The Cumbemayo rock formations rising out of open green pasture under a wide sky

Ventanillas de Otuzco

Rows of square burial niches cut into the volcanic cliff face at Otuzco, with farmland in the valley below
The Otuzco necropolis seen along the cliff, hundreds of window-like niches in tiers across the rock
The long low rock face of the Otuzco necropolis above a green field, its niches worn into the stone

Cuarto del Rescate

The Ransom Room under its protective roof, a single stone chamber with a doorway at the top of worn steps
The fitted stone wall inside the Ransom Room, plain and unmortared, with a small interpretive sign

Baños del Inca

The thermal pools at Baños del Inca at sunset, steam lifting off water that mirrors a gold and blue sky
Steam rising from the open sulphur pools at Baños del Inca, with the bath buildings and the town behind

Carnaval de Cajamarca

Carnival dancers in beaded masks and headdresses of orange and green feathers, close together in a parade
A carnival troupe in straw hats and bright fringed costumes dancing down a wet Cajamarca street
A carnival devil mask with horns, bared teeth and yellow eyes, worn above a sequinned costume

Plaza de Armas y Catedral

The carved baroque front of Cajamarca cathedral against a pink and grey sky at dusk
People crossing the paved Plaza de Armas on an overcast afternoon, palms and lamp posts around the square
The stone church on the Plaza de Armas behind a circular flower bed, seen from across the square
Two carved stone figures of Inca rulers standing at a street corner by the plaza, traffic passing behind

Cerro Santa Apolonia

Cajamarca lit up at dusk seen from Santa Apolonia, the hilltop cross in the foreground
The stone statue of Atahualpa on the summit of Santa Apolonia, the city spread out below
The red roofs of Cajamarca running to the hills, framed by trees on the climb up Santa Apolonia
A replica Cuntur Wasi monolith set into the Santa Apolonia steps, its carved face incised in the stone

A replica of a Cuntur Wasi monolith, set into the steps up the hill. The original stands at the site, 90 km west.

Conjunto Monumental Belén

The Belén church front floodlit at night, its carved niches and figures picked out against the dark
The Belén facade under warm light at night, the carved stonework of its upper storey in shadow
The arcaded courtyard of the Belén complex, a stone fountain at its centre and visitors under the arches
The Belén complex by day, its roofless bell gable and carved portal seen from the street corner
The long side wall and lit bell tower of the Belén complex seen down a Cajamarca street at night

Cajamarca Dairy Tasting

A cook serving from wide metal bowls of fried pork and mote at a Cajamarca market stall, customers waiting at the counter
Pale rounds of fresh cheese stacked in a refrigerated market case below shelves of packaged goods
A customer and a stallholder either side of a market cheese counter hung with handwritten price lists
Wheels and blocks of Cajamarca cheese filling a shop display case, jars and bottles on the shelves behind

Hacienda La Colpa

The long open-sided milking shed at La Colpa, its tiled roof carried on a row of wooden posts
A whitewashed farm street at La Colpa, a man in a dark poncho walking between the low buildings
A black and white dairy cow walking in at La Colpa as visitors watch from behind a wooden fence

Granja Porcón

Vicunas grazing on a slope above the red roofs of the Porcón cooperative
Three vicunas standing in rough grass at the edge of the Porcón pine forest
A spectacled bear standing upright with its forepaws raised in the enclosure at Granja Porcón

Laguna San Nicolás y Talleres de Namora

Laguna San Nicolás under a pale sky, dry hills running down to the far shore
Reeds along the shallow edge of Laguna San Nicolás, bare highland ridges across the water

Alameda de los Incas

The avenue of carved Inca ruler statues on their plinths, climbing a stepped promenade

Iglesia y Convento de La Recoleta

The twin bell towers and white stone front of La Recoleta behind its railings on a clear day
La Recoleta floodlit at night above a busy road, its towers warm against the black sky

Santuario de Polloc

The courtyard at Polloc, every wall, column and arch covered in coloured mosaic tile
Mosaic figures and painted panels covering the inside walls of the Polloc sanctuary around an open doorway

Lagunas de Alto Perú

Two small lagoons lying in dark open moorland at Alto Perú, under a high clear sky

Cuntur Wasi

A visitor with arms outstretched beside a carved monolith at Cuntur Wasi, the valley falling away behind
The grassed stone terraces of the main platform at Cuntur Wasi running up the hilltop
A weathered standing monolith roped off on the open platform at Cuntur Wasi
A Cuntur Wasi monolith in close view, a face and limbs cut in low relief down the stone
A carved monolith standing among the stone foundations at Cuntur Wasi, cloud over the ridge beyond
The low stone walls and terrace lines of Cuntur Wasi seen across the hilltop
A carved monolith in the foreground at Cuntur Wasi, the Jequetepeque valley under cloud behind it
The entrance to the Cuntur Wasi site museum, its name lettered across the gable above the door

From Trivia & Quick Facts

A crowded oil painting of Spanish horsemen cutting through Inca ranks in the square at Cajamarca, Atahualpa carried on a litter at the centre

Juan Lepiani painted the capture of Atahualpa in the 1920s, nearly four centuries after the event. A history painting, not a record of it.

The tall trapezoidal Inca doorway of the Cuarto del Rescate, cut in fitted pale stone under a modern shelter
The narrow stone water channel at Cumbemayo running between grassy banks and out of a rock tunnel
The rock face of Ventanillas de Otuzco rising out of green hillside, its square burial niches cut in rows across the stone
A row of pale yellow cheese wheels stacked on wooden shelves in a dairy store room
The green floor of the Cajamarca valley seen from above, fields and scattered houses running to low brown hills
A dark lagoon on open tawny moorland under a deep blue sky, ridges along the far horizon
A path curving past the weathered rock pillars of the Cumbemayo stone forest under heavy white cloud
The open thermal pool at Banos del Inca, its mineral-stained basin set in a paved garden with the town behind
Three vicunas standing in tussock grass on a wooded green slope at Granja Porcon
A spectacled bear standing upright on wet ground at the Granja Porcon refuge, pale markings around its eyes and muzzle
The stone terraces and roofless buildings of Machu Picchu with Huayna Picchu rising behind

Machu Picchu, 1,200 km south near Cusco. It is here because the point of the fact it illustrates is that Cajamarca is nowhere near it.