Andean and Inca symbols
Symbols of the Andes from the Nazca lines and Tiwanaku to the Inca sun, the khipu and the chakana, and the Quechua and Aymara traditions that keep Pachamama and Inti Raymi today.
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Nazca
- Nazca linesGiant drawings scraped into the desert of southern Peru between about 500 BC and AD 500: straight lines and trapezoids several kilometres long, and outlines of animals and plants. UNESCO lists them as the Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Palpa.
- Nazca hummingbirdOne of the best known Nazca lines: a bird drawn on the desert floor of southern Peru with a long straight bill, spread wings and a long pointed tail. A 2019 study identified it as a hermit, a kind of hummingbird of Peru’s northern and eastern forests.
- Nazca monkeyA monkey drawn on the desert floor of southern Peru, about 110 metres long, with its tail wound into a spiral. It is one of the large animal figures of the Nazca lines, made by the Nazca culture about 2,000 years ago.
- Nazca spiderA spider about 46 metres long drawn on the desert floor of southern Peru, one of the animal figures of the Nazca lines.
Inca
- Inti (the Inca sun)Inti is the sun, the god the Incas worshipped above all others and the divine father of their kings. In the Coricancha, the sun temple at Cusco, he was shown as a huge gold figure with a round face and rays of fire.
- Inti Raymi (festival of the sun)The Inca festival of the sun, held at the June solstice in Cusco. Banned under Spanish rule, it was revived in 1944 and is staged every 24 June at the Coricancha, the main square and Sacsayhuamán.
- ViracochaThe creator god of the Andes, who in the stories made the sun and moon at Lake Titicaca, called the peoples out of the land, and walked away into the sea. The Incas took him into their own pantheon, and an Inca emperor took his name.
- Quipu (khipu)A record made of knotted cords: a main cord with many cords hanging from it, whose knots, colours and positions stored numbers. The Inca state kept its censuses, tribute and stores on quipus (khipus); whether some also recorded words is still debated.
Quechua and Aymara traditions
- PachamamaPachamama is Mother Earth in the Andes, honoured by Quechua and Aymara people with offerings buried in the ground, above all in August, when, farmers say, the earth is hungry and thirsty.
- Chakana (Andean cross)The chakana is the Andean stepped cross, a square cross with twelve points and often a circle at its centre. Its name means bridge or ladder in Quechua; that it stands for the Southern Cross is a modern reading.
- WiphalaA square flag of 49 small squares in seven colours, set in diagonals. It is a symbol of the Aymara, Quechua and other Andean peoples and, since 2009, one of Bolivia’s official state symbols. How old it is, and where it came from, is disputed.
About andean and Inca symbols
These pages follow the symbols of the Andes of South America, culture by culture. On Peru’s south coast the Nazca people scraped the Nazca lines into the desert between about 500 BC and AD 500, among them the hummingbird, the monkey and the spider. Near Lake Titicaca the people of Tiwanaku carved the Gateway of the Sun. On the north coast, Sicán goldsmiths made the tumi, a ceremonial knife that Peru declared one of its pre-Columbian symbols in 1981. The Incas, whose empire fell in 1532, worshipped Inti, the sun, held the feast of Inti Raymi at the June solstice, told of the creator Viracocha, and kept their accounts on the knotted cords of the quipu. The last group belongs to traditions kept today: Pachamama, Mother Earth; the stepped cross called the chakana; and the wiphala flag.
Living traditions
Several of these symbols are part of religious and civic life now. In Peru the offering to Pachamama called the pago a la tierra is made through August, when, farmers say, the earth is hungry and thirsty. Inti Raymi was banned under Spanish rule and has been staged at Cusco every June since 1944. Bolivia’s constitution of 2009 names the wiphala among the symbols of the state. The pages describe these practices in the present tense and say whose words each account is.
Who wrote it down
Much of what is known about Inca religion was written down after the Spanish conquest. Pedro de Cieza de León travelled in Peru between 1532 and 1550, Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa wrote his history of the Incas in 1572, and Garcilaso de la Vega, son of an Inca noblewoman and a Spanish captain, published his Royal Commentaries in 1609. They do not always agree. Garcilaso insists that the Incas worshipped only the Sun; Cieza gives the highest place at the great feasts in Cusco to the creator, Ticiviracocha.
Old and new readings
Some meanings given to these symbols are recent, and the pages say so. The anthropologist Gary Urton suggests that reading the chakana as the Southern Cross may go back only to the time after the conquest. Whether the wiphala began on Tiwanaku pottery or in colonial flags is still argued. And the idea that the Nazca animals are constellations, put forward by María Reiche, has been criticised as a Western view of the sky.
Sources
- Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Palpa, UNESCO World Heritage List, property 700 (inscribed 1994; Internet Archive copy), UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Brief synthesis
- Tiwanaku, Encyclopaedia Britannica (Internet Archive copy, 2026), Encyclopaedia Britannica, Introduction
- Ancient Andean Metalworking (900–1532 CE), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History essay (Internet Archive copy, June 2026), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sicán section
- El Tumi de Oro y la Máscara Sicán valen un Perú, RPP Noticias (Lima), RPP Noticias, article text
- Quipu, Encyclopaedia Britannica (Internet Archive copy, 2026), Encyclopaedia Britannica, Introduction
- First Part of the Royal Commentaries of the Yncas, vol. I, by the Ynca Garcilasso de la Vega, Garcilaso de la Vega, Comentarios reales (Lisbon, 1609), translated by Clements R. Markham, Hakluyt Society, 1869 (Internet Archive full text), Hakluyt Society (Internet Archive), book III, chapter XX; book II
- The Second Part of the Chronicle of Peru, by Pedro de Cieza de León, Pedro de Cieza de León, Crónica del Perú, part 2 (written about 1550), translated by Clements R. Markham, Hakluyt Society, 1883 (Project Gutenberg), Hakluyt Society (Project Gutenberg edition), chapter XXX
- Cultura viva: pago a la tierra (Lectura N° 3, 3er grado de secundaria), Unidad de Gestión Educativa Local Chincheros (Apurímac), Peru’s state school system, June 2025, UGEL Chincheros (gob.pe), reading text
- La fiesta que fue prohibida durante siglos y volvió gracias a Garcilaso de la Vega: la historia del Inti Raymi, La República (Lima), 17 June 2026, La República, article text
- Constitución Política del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia (2009), Constitution of Bolivia, 2009, article 6 (Spanish text, Constitute Project), Constitute Project, Artículo 6, II
- La chakana en la configuración espacial de El Shincal de Quimivil (Catamarca), by Marco Giovannetti and Sofía Silva, Estudios Atacameños no. 66 (2020), pp. 213–235, Universidad Católica del Norte, Estudios Atacameños, Polisemia y profundidad temporal
- La wiphala y las disputas sobre su origen, Correo del Sur (Sucre), Panorama, 3 October 2021 (Bolivia Verifica), Correo del Sur, article text
- Nazca Lines, Encyclopaedia Britannica (Internet Archive copy, 2026), Encyclopaedia Britannica, interpretations
- AI-accelerated Nazca survey nearly doubles the number of known figurative geoglyphs and sheds light on their purpose, by Masato Sakai and others, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121 (2024), e2407652121, doi:10.1073/pnas.2407652121, PNAS (PubMed Central full text), Introduction
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research