Cerro de la Sal
The Cerro de la Sal or Cerro de Sal, (Mountain of Salt) is located in Villa Rica District of Oxapampa Province in Pasco Department, Peru. The Cerro de la Sal was an important source of salt for the pre-Columbian indigenous people of the Amazon Basin in Peru. Because of the seasonal concentration at the mountain by indigenous people (Indians), especially the Asháninka and Yanesha (Amuesha), Spanish missionaries, settlers, and soldiers were attracted to the Cerro de la Sal as early as 1635. Several attempts by Franciscan missionaries to establish Roman Catholic missions in the area were thwarted by uprisings of the indigenous people. In the late 19th century the Peruvian government established a foothold leading to the settlement of Europeans and Andean peoples in the area. Cerro de la Sal is used loosely to refer to the surrounding region and to the chain of mountains extending eastward from the salt deposits. Description Google Earth locates the Cerro de la Sal about north of the town of Villa Rica. José Amich, an 18th-century Franciscan missionary, described the Cerro (mountain or hill) as shaped like a loaf of bread, running for "three leagues," , to the southwest and many more leagues to