Case file · Sacred site
La Tirana and the Ñusta Huillac
The desert sanctuary of La Tirana in Tarapacá is built where, legend says, an Inca princess known as 'the Tyrant', the Ñusta Huillac, was killed after converting to Christianity, in the years after Almagro's 1535 expedition.
1540 CE · -20.34, -69.65 · status: legend
The account
A Mercedarian friar is said to have found her grave and raised a cross there (the year used is an approximate setting). Today the Fiesta de La Tirana each 16 July brings more than 200,000 pilgrims and dozens of masked dance troupes to the tiny town, the largest religious festival in Chile.
The sceptical view
The story of the Ñusta is a foundation legend without contemporary documents.