Pre-Columbian sites of the Northwest

The Northwest was the most densely settled part of what is now Argentina long before the Spanish arrived. Farming communities worked these valleys for well over a thousand years, the Inca empire absorbed them in the late fifteenth century, and the resistance to Spanish rule lasted until the 1660s — longer than almost anywhere else on the continent.

Quilmes, Tucumán

The largest pre-Columbian settlement in the country: terraces, walls and dwellings spread across a hillside below the Calchaquí ridge, once home to a few thousand people. The Quilmes held out against the Spanish for more than a century before the survivors were marched 1,200 km to Buenos Aires in 1667 — the forced exile the modern town of Quilmes is named after.

The site is now co-managed with the descendant community, and visiting with a local guide is what gives the stones their meaning. It lies off RN40 between Cafayate and Santa María.

Pucará de Tilcara, Jujuy

A fortified hilltop town above the Río Grande, built by the Omaguaca people and later held by the Inca. Parts of it were reconstructed in the twentieth century — contested archaeologically, but it makes the layout legible in a way that bare foundations do not. The view over the Quebrada de Humahuaca is worth the climb alone, and the botanical garden of high-altitude cacti sits at the entrance.

The Inca road

The Qhapaq Ñan, the Inca road system, ran through these valleys and is a UNESCO World Heritage site across six countries. Its Argentine stretches include Santa Rosa de Tastil, a large pre-Inca town on the road to San Antonio de los Cobres, and a chain of tambos — way stations — threaded along the Puna.

Menhires of Tafí del Valle

Around 130 carved standing stones, some over three metres tall, left by the Tafí culture from roughly the third century BCE. They were gathered from the surrounding valley into a reserve near the town, which saves them but removes their original context.

Visiting respectfully

• Several sites are on indigenous community land; hire community guides where they are offered.
• Stay on the marked paths — terrace walls are dry stone and collapse under foot traffic.
• Take nothing from the ground, including pottery fragments.
• Most sites are above 2,000 m and have little shade: go early, with water and a hat.

Where to base yourself

Tilcara is the best base for the Jujuy sites and has the regional archaeology museum. Cafayate or Santa María work for Quilmes, and Salta reaches Santa Rosa de Tastil on the road west towards the Puna.