Iruya is a small town of population 1,070 in northwestern Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

. It is located in the Salta Province

Salta Province

Salta is a province of Argentina, located in the northwest of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the east clockwise Formosa, Chaco, Santiago del Estero, Tucumán and Catamarca. It also surrounds Jujuy...

 of northwestern Argentina, and is the capital of the Iruya Department

Iruya Department

The Iruya Department is located in the north of Salta Province in northwest Argentina in the high altitude basin of the Bermejo River. It is one of 23 administrative units in the province....

. Located in the altiplano

Altiplano

The Altiplano , in west-central South America, where the Andes are at their widest, is the most extensive area of high plateau on Earth outside of Tibet...

 region along the Iruya River

Iruya River

The Iruya River is a river of Argentina. It is a tributary of the Pescado River.-See also:* List of rivers of Argentina* List of tributaries of the Río de la Plata-References:...

, Iruya sits nestled against the mountainside at an elevation of 2,780 meters (9,120 feet). It is located over 300 kilometres (186.4 mi) from the province capital of Salta

Salta

Salta is a city in northwestern Argentina and the capital city of the Salta Province. Along with its metropolitan area, it has a population of 464,678 inhabitants as of the , making it Argentina's eighth largest city.-Overview:...

. A 50 km (31.1 mi) portion of the route to Iruya is unpaved.
Nonetheless, the town is popular with tourists for its scenic location and townscape and friendly locals.
8 km north of Iruya there is the village of San Isidro

San Isidro de Iruya

San Isidro de Iruya is a village and rural municipality in Salta Province in northwestern Argentina.-References:...

, 7 km north there is the village of San Juan

San Juan (Iruya)

San Juan is a small village in northwestern Argentina. It is part of the Iruya Department in the Salta Province, located 7 km north of the Iruya village, 4 km northeast of the village of San Isidro and 4 km west of the village of Chiyayoc....

, 6 km south there is the village of Pueblo Viejo.

Iruya's name is derived from the Quechua

Quechua languages

Quechua is a Native South American language family and dialect cluster spoken primarily in the Andes of South America, derived from an original common ancestor language, Proto-Quechua. It is the most widely spoken language family of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a total of probably...

 language, meaning "abundance of straw".

History

Iruya was officially founded in 1753, but the first inhabitants settled here around 100 years earlier. They were mainly Indians of which the oldest roots go back to the Ocloyas, a people belonging to the ethnic group of the Kolla

Kolla people

The Kolla are an indigenous people of Western Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina, living in Jujuy and Salta Provinces. The 2004 Complementary Indigenous Survey reported 53,019 Kolla households living in Argentina. They moved freely between the borders of Argentina and Bolivia...

 who stem from the Kollasuyo, which used to be one of the four regions of the Inca empire.