This is a legend that was collected in 1955 by Oscar Núñez del Prado, father of Juan Núñez del Prado, who recounts the beginning of the Inka empire and the expectation of the Inca’s return; legend of the creation of the Quero people that says:

In those days, when the sun did not yet exist, a people lived on earth who had great power over the things of the earth, so much so that they could make the stones walk or turn a mountain into a plain with a simple shot of their sling. .

The Moon or Mama Keel shone dimly over her shadow world, giving little light for the activities of those people called: Niaupa machus, the ancients.

One day the Supreme Creator Spirit: The Roal and maximum chief of the Apus (spirits of the mountains), asked the Niaupa machu if they would like him to give them part of his great power; They arrogantly replied to the great Roal that they had their own power and needed no other. Irritated by this response, the Roal created the Sun and ordered him to shine brightly in the world of Hanac pacha. Terrified by the almost blinding shine of that heavenly body, the ancients (Niaupa machu) sought refuge in their homes, the heat of this new God was brutal for these people who gradually dehydrated them and gradually dried their muscles until they became stuck dried meat to their bones, these thought that it would be their end, but this was not the will of the Roal and now they are the Soq’as (dangerous spirits), which appear at certain hours in the afternoon just when the sun goes down or during some nights of new Moon.

The earth became inactive and the Apus decided to forge new beings. So they created Incari and Qoyari, a man and a woman full of wisdom. Incari was given a magic wand of gold with mystifying engravings and Qoyari a spindle, both symbols of Power and industry.

Inkari was ordered to found a city of powerful people like them where the rod of power was nailed vertically. He made his launch, but the rod fell flat on the ground, so he walked to it, traveling distances to pick up his power rod and he got ready after walking one more stretch to launch again and with his second launch the rod stuck in the ground, but remaining at an oblique angle, trapped between black mountains and on the banks of a river. However, Incari decided to found a city called Queros there. The conditions of the place were not propitious, so I consider building his capital in a nearby place in the same region and he began to work hard in what are now the Ruins called Tampu.

Exhausted and sweaty from work, Inkari wanted to take a bath, but the cold was too intense, so she decided to make the Upis hot springs sprout and build the baths that still exist there.

Inkari had built her city there, disobeying the mandate of the gods or mountain spirits, so that in order to make her understand her mistake, they gave the Niaupa machu one more opportunity, who observed Inkari with bitter envy. Their main desire was to exterminate the son of the mountain spirits and to this end they rolled gigantic stones down the slopes of the mountains where Inkari was working.

Frightened, he fled to the shores of Lake Titicaca, where the peace, tranquility and beauty of the place allowed him to meditate, then returned to the Vilcañusta river, ascended to the top of the Raya from where he launched his power rod for the third time, which went to fall in a totally vertical way on a fertile and beautiful valley. In this Inkari valley he founded the city of Cuzco, where he lived for a long time, but Queros could not be forgotten, so after training him and teaching him secrets about the world, he sent his oldest son to Queros to populate the city and his other descendants. sent to various places, where they gave rise to the royal lineages of the Incas. Once his task was completed, Inkari decided to set out again in the company of his wife Qoyari to teach his wisdom to other peoples. He passed through Queros and disappeared in the jungle, but not before leaving evidence of his passage with the marks of his fingers that can still be seen in the Ruins of Mujurumi and Incaq Yupin, until the time of the Inca’s return. Inkari is a combination of the Quechua Inca word that means sovereign or ruler plus the Castilian word king: Inkarey. Qoyari is the combination of the Quechua word Qoya which means sovereign and the Spanish word queen: Qoyarey.

Source: Asociación Educarte Perú