Volcán Llullaillaco

Volcán Llullaillaco in Salta Province reaches 6,739 metres — the second-highest active volcano on Earth — and near its summit in 1999 archaeologists found three perfectly mummified Inca children, sacrificed in a capacocha ceremony approximately 500 years ago and preserved by the cold, dry, volcanic atmosphere so completely that the eldest child's hair was still braided and dye remained visible in her textiles. The children now rest in Salta's MAAM museum; the volcano where they were found is still active and still largely unreached.

Llullaillaco is a stratovolcano on the Argentina-Chile border in the Puna de Atacama, at 6,739 metres the second-highest active volcano in the world after Ojos del Salado. The 1999 archaeological expedition led by anthropologist Johan Reinhard discovered the three Inca mummies (La Doncella, El Niño, and La Niña del Rayo) at a height of 6,739 metres — the highest archaeological site ever excavated and the best-preserved Inca mummies known, due to the combination of altitude, cold, and low humidity. The summit ascent is a technical mountaineering objective requiring high-altitude camping at 5,200 and 5,800 metres, acclimatisation in the region, and experience on volcanic rock and ice — the combination of extreme altitude, active volcanic terrain, and distance from any rescue infrastructure makes this one of the most demanding ascents in South America. The volcano's last confirmed eruption occurred around 1877.