Caranqui, Ibarra

Caranqui, a small Ibarra suburb situated at the north base of Mount Imbabura, has about 5000 people. If you drive about 3 kilometers south of Ibarra, past an oddly-shaped cubic building and up a hill, you will arrive in this small town, called the "centro antiguo" or "old center" locally. Historically and archeologically, it is an extremely important area. Historians differ as to whether the Inca ruins were constructed by Huayna Capa, the conqueror of the area or by one of his two sons, Atahualpa. At any rate, it is the birthplace of Atahualpa, the last Inca emperor. It is possibly the last Inca site to be built in South America before the Inca empire fell to the Spanish invasion.