Introduction

Cerro "Plomo” is a "big one". The incas chose it as an “Apu" (guardian in the quechua language), because it completely dominates the central valley of the Maipo river, generously providing it with water from its many glaciers. The glaciers of its south face give birth to the Molina river, which after joining the Yerba Loca stream forms Santiago's main river, the Mapocho. Glaciers of the north and west faces, instead, Plomo feed the Maipo river, first forming the Olivares river, main afluent of the Colorado river, which before leaving the internal valleys of the Cordillera, flows into the copious Maipo.

Cerro "Plomo" is visible from almost every point of the central valley of the Maipo, from Graneros to Lampa. Naturally, it is also visible from every highpoint of the central Cordillera, including from those of the Cordillera de la Costa (coastal mountain range). For this reason, and because of its tremendous mass, the Plomo was chosen as a sanctuary by the Incas. On its slopes, and on top of its summit, many rituals were celebrated, especially those directed towards the sun, their principal god, "Inti"; also when strange phenomena such as sickness, wars, and disease ocurred. The most known ceremony, the “Capac cocha”, consisted in the sacrifice of young men and maidens. There is plenty of evidence of these ceremonies all around Plomo's slopes: at Plomo's summit, for instance, there are some simple but not rough constructions of stones, and nearby its highest point a buried Inca boy was discovered, interrupting his peaceful sleep on Plomo, which lasted more than five hundred years. The discovery took place the 1^st of february of 1954, around three o´clock, when the "arrieros" (cowboys of the Andes) Luis Ríos Barrueto, Guillermo Chacón Carrasco and Jaime Ríos Abarca reached the summit. They were probably seeking Inca treasures; it is common knowledge among "arrieros", or it was some time ago, that next to the young victims the Incas also buried valuable gold pieces(the members of this kind of expeditions are known as "huaqueros", since these burials are known as "huacas"). Today, the mummy is in the Museo de Historia Natural de Santiago, though not on view to the public. The museum has not been able, until now, to collect the needed resources to show and maintain the mummy in a place which permits doing so without disintegrating it; the mummy is very sensible to the rays of light.