Cerro El Plomo

Sacred Inca mountain above Santiago: a 5,424 m Andean peak with a mystical past — once an Inca sacrificial site, now a popular trekking summit.

Cerro El Plomo is a 5,424-metre stratovolcano in the Chilean Andes, 46 kilometres northeast of Santiago de Chile, and one of the country's most frequently climbed five-thousanders. Its relatively low technical difficulty — essentially a demanding trek without technical climbing sections — draws hundreds of ambitious hikers every year. Yet the mountain is far more than a sporting challenge: around 1500 AD, the Inca regarded it as a sacred mountain god and performed a child sacrifice on its summit, burying the offering in the eternal cold. When Argentine mountaineers reached the summit plateau in 1954, they discovered the frozen mummy of the child — today one of the most significant artefacts of Inca mountain worship, on display at the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural in Santiago.