Ayacucho Chat

Until 15 February 1825 the city was called Huamanga — its province still is — so this Ayacucho chat is for ayacuchanos and huamanguinos alike. #ayacucho is the room for the regional capital, 2,761 metres up on the eastern slope of the Andes.

Being new, #ayacucho has no one in it yet. Joining from here also opens #peru, the national room, which does have people, and #latinoamerica; if you meet someone from Huamanga, Huanta or Quinua there, move over to the city room.

Ayacucho is known as the “city of churches” for its more than thirty colonial temples, and its Holy Week and carnival are part of Peru’s national cultural heritage. It is also a centre of folk art: retablos, carvings in Huamanga stone (alabaster), silver filigree from the Santa Ana district and the clay bulls and churches of Quinua. The battle of Ayacucho was fought on the Quinua plain on 9 December 1824, and the city was renamed after it. The Universidad San Cristóbal de Huamanga dates from 1677, and the ruins of Wari, capital of a pre-Inca empire, lie about 20 km away. Peru is on UTC−5 all year. Nearby rooms: Huancayo and Cusco.