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The
Huascaran National park is located in the department of Ancash,
in the Cordillera Blanca massif, the world's highest tropical
mountain chain. It was established as a national park in 1975 over an area
of 340,000 hectares and declared Mankind Heritage Site by
UNESCO in 1985.
The
park is home to one of the most extraordinary high-mountain
eco-systems on Earth: 663 glaciers, 269 lakes and 41 rivers,
as well as hundreds of mountain peaks, 26 of which top 6,000
meters. The park teems with an extraordinary variety of
flora and fauna, including 800 plant species and dozens
of kinds of animals. It is also the site of 33 pre-Inca
archaeological complexes (such as Wilcahuaín) and
dozens of Quechua-speaking peasant farming communities who
use traditional farming and livestock herding techniques.
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