The Huascaran National park is located in the department of Ancash, in the Cordillera Blanca massif, the world's highest tropical mountain chain. It was established as a national park in 1975 over an area of 340,000 hectares and declared Mankind Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985.

The park is home to one of the most extraordinary high-mountain eco-systems on Earth: 663 glaciers, 269 lakes and 41 rivers, as well as hundreds of mountain peaks, 26 of which top 6,000 meters. The park teems with an extraordinary variety of flora and fauna, including 800 plant species and dozens of kinds of animals.


It is also the site of 33 pre-Inca archaeological complexes (such as Wilcahuain) and dozens of Quechua-speaking peasant farming communities who use traditional farming and livestock herding techniques.