The Loja Narrow Pass

In the area of the Narrow Neck of Land, there was a narrow pass or passage between the Land Northward and the Land Southward. There is some debate about where this pass was exactly located. While we prefer the pass mentioned in the Inca battle and called the Huayna Capac Pass when he and his warriors marched south toward Peru to set down an uprising.

Hayan Capac walked at the head of his troops for a day-and-half through the narrow pass that later carried his name

As we have written before it is recorded that they went through this Pass and rather than be carried on his litter, Huayna Capac got down and walked and it took a day and a half to make it through the Pass
    The mountain pass is in the location of the river junction between Rio De Leon and the Rio Jubones. The Jubones had its origin at the Paquishapa/Leon confluence (junction of the rivers) near a pass through the mountains.
    In the dry areas of the low country (below 6500 feet) in the Río Jubones (headwaters at Putushío above Oña), drainage to the west of the highland Saraguro region, and continuing up the valley of Río León from its confluence with the Río Jubones to its higher, wetter headwaters at Ayaloma.
    Al Oeste de Saraguro (el valle del Río Jubones) to the west of Saraguro (the Jubones River valley). Less than 25 direct miles to the west of the town of Saraguro—but still within the boundaries of the cantón (county) of Saraguro—elevations drop to as low as 3000 feet) This area is the valley of the Río Jubones and its tributary rivers (the León, the Paquishapa, the Tenta, the Uchucay, and, from the province of Azuay, the Rircay).

The Jubones valley is a desert region with a sparse covering of xerophytic vegetation including various cactus species and thorny mimosa trees. Agriculture is possible only in irrigated areas and in small patches of flood plain. Donkeys and goats, set loose to wander rough terrain in search of whatever forage they could find have probably contributed much to the desertification of this region.
    In spite of frequent cloud cover, temperatures are higher and rainfall is lower in this area than it is around Saraguro—few indigenous Saraguro people have lived in this area within memory (the twentieth century) although a small number of Saraguros from such communities as Gera and Cañicapa, worked some land in the upper, eastern sections of the Jubones desert. And before the first motor road came into Saraguro in the middle of the century some Saraguros traveled to the Jubones desert to trade--especially for tropical fruits such as oranges, and sugar cane.
    There are also three rivers that join just above Challuabamba, the Deleg, Burgay, and the
Tomebamba, of which there are several archaeological sites close by (Tomebamba-Paute River area; Challuabamba (“Fish Field”); Huancarcuchu; Monjashuayco; El Carmen Alto; El Carmon Bajo; and Pirincay) around Cuenca (which was built on the site of Tomebamba). Tomebamba was supposedly where Huayna Capac was born and where he reigned. This is the same Huayna Capac who Inca history gave his name to the Pass along the coast.

Top: Jubones River in Ecuador; Bottom: The dry valley of the Jubones 

The Jubones River to somewhere just south of Challuabamba where its headwaters are supposedly up in the hills (mountain), but can’t found it on my map system.
    The Villa Jubones and Las Juntas sites in the Jubones, another major coastal route leading to the far south coast and to northern Peru, control movement up and down that valley as well as access to the Río Rircay. Putushío, which seems to have been a metallurgical production site from the beginning, is accessible via this route as well. Loma Pucara is on a trade route to the eastern side of the Andes. Formative sites indicates that a fair number of them were in strategic areas for moving goods. (J. Scott Raymond and Richard L. Burger, Editors, Archaeology of Formative Ecuador, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC, 2003, p160).

Putushío hill  near Saraguro in Southern Ecuador

Putushío hill in archaeological remains, considered the oldest of Ecuador (3500 BC), is located in the parish Plank northwest of Canton Saraguro, on the border between the provinces of Loja (where the Andes seem to lean, 6900 feet above sea level) and Azuay they found.
    This area of Putushío shows plenty of evidence of gold and excessive examples of very ancient metallurgy as well as lost-wax casting. It is here that the country's oldest precious metals are found (David A. Scott and Pierter Meyers, eds., Archaeometry of Pre-Columbian Sites and Artifacts, Getty Conservation Institute, 1994).
    As an aside, Friar Martin de Morua wrote that the Inca took some of the stones from Cuzco to build Saraguro in Ecuador ) History of the Kings Incas of Per, Chronicle of XVI Century (Collection of books and documents on the history of Peru, Volume IV) Lima, Sanmartiy Cia, 1922, p150). However, it seems illogical that the Inca would carry extremely heavy carved and dressed stone 1500 miles. It sees more likely that the Jaredites who first lived in the area, as well as later Nephites when they moved into this part of the Land of Promise, cut and dressed stone for building in this area as they had earlier in the south.
    Such legends or stories are often the fault of historians who tend to believe that only the Inca were capable of building anything of note and give them credit for things others accomplished or simply for things that never happened. After all, these Inca,who only existed in Andean Peru for about 90 years, were fighting life and death battles on three fronts (north, east and south), and managing an empire covering over 772,000 square miles. It seems likely that would not have had time to dally in such trivial matters and use valuable resources to do so. 

The nearly impassable Podocarpus Forest to the south and a little east of Loja

To the south is the city of Loja, which is at the bottom of the broad glacial Cuxibamba valley. It lies between the humid Amazon Basin and the Peruvian sechura along the coast, and is composed mainly of paramo, cloud-forest, and jungle. The valley borders the Podocarpus, a huge forest that spans from lower montane rain forests at 3300 feet up to high elevation elfin forests (Dwarf Forest) at 9800 feet. This entire area is very difficult to transverse with many blind canyons, cliffs, and impassable forests.
    As Mormon wrote: And the Lamanites did give unto us the land northward, yea, even to the narrow passage which led into the land southward. And we did give unto the Lamanites all the land southward” (Mormon 2:29, emphasis added), and also “I did cause my people that they should gather themselves together at the land Desolation, to a city which was in the borders, by the narrow pass which led into the land southward” (Mormon 3:5, emphasis added). He also wrote: “they had come to the borders of the land Desolation; and there they did head them, by the narrow pass which led by the sea into the land northward, yea, by the sea, on the west and on the east” (Alma 50:34).
    All of this places this narrow pass or passage in the borders between the Land Northward and the Land Southward, basically between the Land of Desolation and the Land of Bountiful.
    Obviously, the terrain as indicated above, would have required some type of pass from one land to the other.