Introduction

Tambo Colorado is strategically located where the narrow Pisco Valley starts to open up and emerges onto the coastal plains. Max Uhle, the “Father of Peruvian Archeology”, found Tambo Colorado to be set in a charming valley with ample water, fertile soil and ever-green trees and speculated that this may have been one reason for the Incas to settle here. The reason for the specific location of Tambo Colorado lies on the important Inca road that connected Chincha on the coast with the highlands and Cusco, the Inca capital. Uhle wrote in his letter to Phoebe A. Hearst on September 11, 1901 that he believes “[t]here is no doubt that the selection of this spot for construction of the ruins has something to do with the general line of communications with the valley of Ica.” (Protzen and Harris, 2005).

From Max Uhle's "Das Thal Von Chincha"

It was the author's plan-beginning with the exploration of the valley of Chincha-to make a broad cross-section through the regions of southern Peru cultivated in ancient times. In this, the valleys of Pisco and Ica, which have never been studied before, were to be touched first. . . . Next, progressing towards Cuzco, the interesting regions of Lucana and the department of Ayacucho, the former domiciles of the Chancas made famous through ancient history, were to be touched. And further, one could have hoped to find on the way a key to the historic culture of the Incas and the style of Cuzco through the study of its neighboring cultures. The rather extensively conceived program could only be realized in its first part regarding the valleys of Chincha, Pisco and Ica. After one year of work on this [the first part] from September 1900 to October 1901, he [the author] was reached by a recall to California to give a preliminary account of his accomplishments to date.

From Jean-Pierre Protzen's "Explorations in the Pisco Valley"