The armies of the legendary Inca Empire from Cuzco invaded the Central Cordillera sector, leaving their mark in the Aconcagua area, with an extensive road network: the Inca road or Qhapac Ñán, which linked a great diversity of places and towns such as those of Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia.
The importance of Aconcagua as a sacred hill for the Incas is evidenced by the discovery by Argentine climbers in 1985 of the “Niño del Aconcagua”. At just over 5,000 m.a.s.l. An Inca burial was found with an Inca child around 7 to 8 years old, in which a sacred ritual consisting of the sacrifice of the child had been practiced during the Inca Period (1400 to 1532 AD).
We make available for download the Aconcagua Mountain Guides digital elevation model (DEM) corresponding to the captured area, which allows a three-dimensional view of the place. Mount Aconcagua or Cerro Aconcagua, is a mountain located in the western province of Mendoza, in the center-west of Argentina, on the border with Chile. It is the highest point that can be found in the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered one of the mountains that are included in the group of the Seven Summits, a group that corresponds to the highest mountains that exist on the continents. In 1994, blind climbers managed to climb to the north summit. Aconcagua Ascents
In 1986, a climber of Chilean origin carried a table on his back. The objective was to reach the top, set the table to achieve a little more height and thus be the person who climbed the highest in the world.
In 1982, Norman Croucher Obe, of English origin, managed to reach 5,300 meters above sea level at the age of 40. with his prosthetic legs. Aconcagua Treks
In 1947 Cop and Herold, both of German origin, set out with the aim of reaching the summit of the mountain and halfway there they found a guanaco skeleton on the rocks. Since then, this edge has been known as the “Guanaco Edge” Today at the National University of Cuyo, the IGN released the result of the exhaustive investigation of the group of scientists gathered in the SIGMA Program, who worked for two years in a complex study that managed to elucidate the exact height of the Colossus of America. The current value is 6960.8 meters above mean sea level. It was determined based on geodetic GPS and gravimetry measurement campaigns carried out during the years 2011 and 2012.
The results of the measurements were presented at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the National University of Cuyo (Mendoza), with the presence of authorities from the IGN, the Rector’s Office of the University and the Provincial Government.
This new height value does not imply a relationship with the previous one, since the first one was determined in 1956 by the Institute of Geodesy of the University of Buenos Aires, with measurement techniques and instruments of that time. The current value was achieved with new measurement techniques and state-of-the-art instruments. Thanks to the installation of the permanent GPS stations, located in the NICO refuge and the summit, the Cerro will be able to be monitored annually and its future vertical movement will be determined.
The work was carried out jointly between the IGN, the SIGMA Program, the National University of Cuyo, the National University of Rosario and the National University of San Juan.