Chincha Alta is a Peruvian city located in the Ica Region. A major port at the mouth of the Chincha River, it is the capital of Chincha Province. Geography The City of Chincha Alta is located 200 kilometers south of Lima, in the Chincha Province of the Ica Region of Peru. The city covers an area of 2988 km2 and has a population of 56,085. History Pre-Chincha era The first inhabitants of the area arrived at the beginning of the ninth century. These people are known as the "Pre-Chincha". The historian Luis Cánepa Pachas puts the date of the arrival of the Pre-Chincha at sometime in the tenth century. The rudimentary Pre-Chincha culture was centered on fishing and shell gathering. The origin of the Pre-Chincha people is still uncertain. Chincha era In the eleventh century, a more advanced and warlike people known as the Chincha arrived in the coastal area. The Chincha had developed systems of architecture, agriculture and irrigation. The Chincha came to dominate the original inhabitants of the area. Some aspects of the original Pre-Chincha culture were absorbed by the newcomers. The word Chincha is derived from "Chinchay" or "Chinchas" or "Cinca" which means "ocelot" in Chincha Quechua. The Chincha worshiped an ocelot god, and believed themselves to be descended from ocelots, who gave them their warlike and dominating tendencies. The Chincha fertilized their fields with dead birds and guano, and this knowledge was passed on to later peoples. The Chincha learned seafaring skills from the Pre-Chincha, and may have traveled as far as Central America by boat. Inca era Between 1458 and 1460, the Chincha were conquered by the armies of the Inca Empire led by Tupac Inca Yupanqui during the reign of his father, Pachacuti. The Chincha area became an important part of the Inca Empire, and the Inca valued the Chincha for their agricultural knowledge, military skill and trade routes. Colonial era The Chincha region was then conquered by the Spanish, the area suffered a 99 percent decline in population in the first 85 years of Spanish rule and many places regressed into wilderness, Africans brought by the Spanish began to settle in the region en masse, some of the Chincha's surrounding areas became a haven for fugitive African slaves known by the Spanish as Cimarrones. Modern era In the early 19th Century, Chincha was known to British mariners as Chinca or Chinka. In late