In 1920 the aviators Robert Shipee and George Johnson in their aerial expedition found the inter-andean valley which they called "The Lost Valley of the Incas”, in a second expedition the following year, they realized that this valley is surrounded by a canyon with very vertical walls, at which time the first measurements were carried out, taking an approximate depth of 3000 meters.

In 1981, a Polish expedition found out that the canyon was 3250 meters after being 33 days inside the canyon, with measurement devices of short accuracy.



The last expedition to the Colca Canyon in 2005, led by the Polish mathematician and expeditionary Andrew Pietowski, revealed that in the neighboring area of the village of Quillo Orco in the district of Huambo, the depth of Colca Canyon reached 4.160 m. on the north side, and 3600 meters on the south side. The Polish researcher explained that the measurements vary over the years due to several factors, including the sinking of the riverbed and the use of increasingly accurate devices.

The formation of the Colca Canyon took place in the Andean and Quechua tectonic stages, in the last 150 million years, but its depth is due to several factors including the growth of the Andes Mountain Range, during the galacier retreat Quaternary and mainly by the accelerated erosion caused by the Colca River.

Finally, the formation of the primitive Colca Canyon must have started around 10 million years ago, but its present form probably corresponds to the last million years, that is to say, the Quaternary.

The morphology of the Colca Canyon, was influenced by the volcanic activities of Sabancaya and Hualca Hualca, that occurred within the last million years, which deposits formed a natural dam of more than 5 miles long and 500 m. high, trapping Colca river for hundreds of thousands of years, thereby forming a large lake that would have extended from the town of Madrigal to Yanque.


After thousands of years the was a sudden rupture of the dam causing the current depth of the canyon, it is at this stage that the Colca Canyon is a gorge with several meters of profundity and shortly wide, which is narrow in Incasaltana and Puente Inca local places; it deepens downriver, to abruptly transform into a large canyon with about 60° inclination slopes, it is common to find vertical cliffs of hundreds of meters of gap with a perfect vertical disjunction (Oasis-Cabanaconde). The right river bank has a strong slope and continues from the Bomboya Mountain peak to the bottom of the canyon.

The Colca Canyon is exceptionally good for adventure sports such as trekking, rafting, climbing, mountain biking, camping, and hiking, among others.