Santa Rosa de Tastil
Coordinates: 24 ° 27 ′ 8 ″ S , 65 ° 57 ′ 19 ″ W
Santa Rosa de Tastil is a settlement in the Rosario de Lerma department in the Argentine province of Salta .
location
Santa Rosa de Tastil is located in the Quebrada de las Cuevas at an altitude of about 3200 meters above sea level.
The now almost abandoned settlement on Ruta Nacional 51 (Argentina) is a stop for tour operators on the way to San Antonio de los Cobres . The town of Campo Quijano in the Valle de Lerma is around 75 kilometers away. It is another 55 kilometers to San Antonio de los Cobres.
The tren a las nubes runs here in a neighboring valley, the Quebrada de Toro .
population
The place is a supply center for the surrounding communities. There is a primary school, a health post, a post office, a police station and a church.
The population consists largely of mestizos or members of indigenous peoples.
The patronage festival for Saint Rosa of Lima on August 30th of each year attracts visitors from far and wide. The Catholic rites are interspersed with elements of the cult of the Pachamama .
Tastil ruins
The pre-Columbian ruins of Tastil are located a few kilometers west of today's village on a northern slope above the Valle de las Cuevas.
The excavations cover 12 hectares in an area poor in vegetation. The function of the settlement used in the 14th and 15th centuries, which could accommodate several thousand people, is controversial. The mostly round buildings made of layered stones, which extend on a mountain ridge in a west-east direction, are in a good state of preservation. Residential buildings can be clearly distinguished from public buildings such as grain mills and cult sites. It is believed that the settlement was already uninhabited at the time the Spaniards arrived in what is now northwestern Argentina.
Some of the less significant finds are on display in a museum in Santa Rosa de Tastil, and other finds are exhibited in Salta and La Plata .
The ruins were declared a Monumento Histórico Nacional in December 1997 .
