The Elqui River starts in the west Andes and flows into the Pacific Ocean near the Chilean city of La Serena. It is a wine and pisco producing area.[2] Vicuña, the main town of the middle valley, was the home of Nobel Laureate poet Gabriela Mistral.^{[citation needed]}

Elqui River
The Elqui River on the map
Location
Country	Chile
Physical characteristics
Source
• location	Junction of Turbio River and Claro River (Elqui)
• elevation	815 m (2,674 ft)[1]
Mouth
• location	Pacific Ocean
Basin size	9,826 km2 (3,794 sq mi)[1]

Indigenous cultures of the Elqui Valley

About a quarter of the toponymy in Elqui Valley is of indigenous origin, overwhelmingly Quechua and Mapuche.[3] There is scant Diaguita (Kakan) toponimy known in the area despite it being considered a homeland of that people by various authors.[3] Quechua toponimy is related to valleys incorporation to the Inca Empire in the late 15th and early 16th-century. Some Mapuche toponimy posdates Inca rule, but other may be coeval or even precede it.[3] Toponyms recognised as Nahua, Kunza, Diaguita, Aymara and Taino make together up less than 10% of the all placenames in Elqui Valley.[3]

It is generally accepted that incorporation of north-central Chile to the Inca Empire was through warfare which caused a severe depopulation in the Transverse Valleys of Norte Chico, the wider Diaguita homeland.[4] Chilean toponimy in Tarija, Bolivia, including "Erqui" along with other evidence have been interpreted to suggest that Incas carried deported defeated tribes from Elqui Valley to southern Bolivia.[5][6] After or during conquest Incas would have settled foreign tribes in Elqui Valley,[6] and ended up imposing Quechua placenames on the local geography.[3] There is uncertainty about the date of these transfers.[3][6] Chronicler Diego de Rosales tells of an anti-Inca rebellion in the Diaguita lands of Coquimbo and Copiapó concurrent with the Inca Civil War.[7] This rebellion would have been brutally repressed by the Incas who gave rebels "great chastise".[7]

See also

• Elqui Valley (wine region)
• Pisco Capel
• Julio Alberto Mercado Illanes

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Elqui River.

На других языках

[de] Río Elqui

[es] Río Elqui

[ru] Эльки (река)