Peru · Quarried volcanic stone extraction and architectural carving
Sillar / Ruta del Sillar
The manual extraction and carving of sillar — a white, porous, easily worked volcanic ignimbrite stone formed by ancient eruptions of the Chachani, Picchu Picchu, and Misti volcanoes over two million years ago — which has built and defined Arequipa, Peru's 'White City,' since colonial times. Quarrymen known as silleros still manually extract the stone from Arequipa's Añashuayco quarries, among 17 documented active and historical quarry sites across the districts of Yura, Cayma, Yanahura, Cerro Colorado, Sachaca, Alto Selva Alegre, and Uchumayo. The technique — extraction and carving alike — has been officially declared Cultural Patrimony of the Nation of Peru specifically to revalue and protect its multi-generational family transmission, and the stone's structural resilience made it the material of choice for post-earthquake reconstruction throughout the city's history.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Not Applicable as a direct ICH inscription for the craft technique specifically, though Arequipa's historic center — built substantially from sillar — is itself a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the extraction/carving tradition has been separately declared Cultural Patrimony of the Nation of Peru through Peru's own domestic heritage framework
The carving of locally quarried stone by families of stone carvers in Huambocancha Alta and the Porcón area, a few kilometers north of the city of Cajamarca in the northern Peruvian Andes.
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