Ausangate Mountain, Peru

Ausangate or Auzangate is a stunning mountain of the Vilcanota mountain range in the Andes of Peru. Ausangate has an elevation of 6,384 meters, situated around 100 kilometers southeast of Cusco in the Cusco Region, Ocongate District. The mountain has great significance in Incan mythology, every year the Quyllur Rit'i festival, which entices thousands of Quechua pilgrims is celebrating festival which took one week before the Corpus Christi feast. This area is inhabited by llama and alpaca herding communities, and constitutes one of the few remaining pastoralist societies in the world.

Moreover, high mountain trails are used by these herders to trade with agricultural communities at lower elevations. Currently, one of these trails, "the road of the Apu Ausangate", is one of the most famous treks in Peru. The area has four major geological features, the Andean uplift formed by Granits, the hanging glaciers and glacial erosional valleys, the Permian formation with its singular colors: red, ochre, and turquoise and the Cretaceous, limestone forests.