Cajamarca is a region in Peru. The capital is the city of Cajamarca. It is located in the north part of the country and shares a border with Ecuador. It is located in the Andes Mountain Range, the longest in the world, and partly in the Amazon Rainforest, the largest in the world
 The origin of the city goes back over 3,000 years. Traces of pre-Chavín cultures can be seen in surrounding archaeological sites such as Cumbe Mayo and Kuntur Wasi. During the period between 1463 and 1471, Tupac Inca conquered the area and brought Cajamarca into the Tawantinsuyu, or Inca empire, which at the time was still being ruled by Tupac's father Pachacuti.
Cajamarca's place in history is secured by the tragedy of 1532. Atahuallpa had beaten his brother in a battle for the Inca throne in Quito. On his way back to Cusco to claim the throne with his army of 80,000 soldiers, he ran into a small band of about a 170 explorers (conquistadors) from a distant land. These explorers invited Atahuallpa to a peace ceremony in his honor in Cajamarca's Plaza de Armas. For this the explorers sent a Friar, Vicente de Valverde, to convince Athualpa to adopt the Christian faith. Atahuallpa merely observed a Christian bible handed to him and quickly threw it on the floor as a sign of indifference. The events that unfolded after this incident would only culminate in bringing about the end of the Inca Empire, as the Spanish conquistadors led by Francisco Pizarro invaded the Main Plaza of Cajamarca in the Battle of Cajamarca (1532) and soon captured Atahuallpa and most of his army.
Once the Spanish had Atahuallpa, they held him captive in Cajamarca's main temple. They were able to convince Atahuallpa's generals not to attack by threatening to kill their king if they did. But the Conquistadors were also trapped, with only a small force. Atahuallpa at first did not fully understand the intentions of the Spanish conquistadors, yet he offered them a ransom for his freedom. The Inca emperor offered Pizarro a room filled with gold and twice over with silver, within two months. The Spanish were staggered by this offer.
This room became known as El Cuarto del Rescate, or "The Ransom Room". Tourists to Cajamarca can see a room by this name in Cajamarca, but most likely the room was Atahuallpa's cell, not his ransom room. In the end Atahuallpa had misjudged the Conquistadors; after they had the ransom they murdered him.
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