Huanca (monolith)

A huanca (in Quechua ancashino: wanka) or chichic (tsitsiq) is an elongated vertical stone considered sacred, with multiple symbolisms, in the Andean worldview. Huancas were worshipped and given rituals and offerings. The stone placed at the top is called chacrayoc; (in Quechua of Ancash, chakrayuq or "lord of the chakra").

Huanca, while monoliths, are similar to totems (from the Ojibwa word ototeman, meaning 'he is my kinship') of the Native American peoples of North America, as they are considered sacred and can symbolize the ancestor of a community, and thus fulfil a tutelar function. They also resemble menhir, megalithic monuments built in the late Neolithic and Bronze Age in the western Mediterranean and Atlantic Europe.