5 Best Sights in The Northwest, Argentina

The fascinating Museum of High Mountain Archaeology (MAAM) holds the mummified remains of three children born into Incan nobility—aged 6, 7, and 15—and the 146 objects buried with them in sacrificial services some 600 years ago. They were discovered at the summit of the 22,058-foot Volcán Llullaillaco, on the Argentine–Chilean border, in 1999. The high altitude and freezing temperatures kept their skin, hair, and clothes in impeccable condition, although the face of one was damaged by lightning. The museum also contains an exhibition about the Qhapaq Ñan Inca trading route from southern Colombia to Mendoza and another mummy, the Reina del Cerro (Queen of the Mountain), which for decades was illegally in the hands of private collectors.

The former home of its founder, divided into two parts, visitors to this small museum can first enjoy a musical instrument collection that belonged to Justiniano Torres Aparicio, before stepping into the second room for a more archeological and paleontological experience. Exhibits include a pre-Hispanic mummy, everyday implements such as axes, pipes, and ceramics from the San Francisco culture, as well as pieces from Bolivia’s Tiawanaco culture and hunter-gatherers who inhabited the Quebrada de Humahuaca. 

Exhibits at the Museo Arqueológico, run by the University of Buenos Aires, can be a little confusing due to a lack of explanatory labels. The two mummies here are considerably less well cared for than those in Salta's MAAM (Museum of High Altitude Archaeology), but no less fascinating. The clothes, hair, and skin of the first, which was found in San Pedro de Atacama in Chile, are well preserved. Other rooms display Nazca, Inca, Moche, and other remains from the past 2,000 years.

Arms, trophies, and military memorabilia collected from the 25 years of fighting for independence are on display at the Juan Lavalle Provincial History Museum. In this adobe building, General Juan Lavalle, a hero of the War of Independence and an enemy of the dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas, was assassinated. A replica of the door through which Lavalle was shot in 1746 is part of the exhibit.

For 66 years, Rodolfo Bravo collected and cataloged funerary and religious objects from local excavations. These objects, made of clay, ceramic, metal, and textiles, are on display at the private Museo Regional y Arqueológico Rodolfo Bravo (Rudolfo Bravo Regional and Archaeological Museum). Artifacts from the Incas and Diaguitas of the Calchaqui Valley also form part of the collection.