Vilcabamba = Willka /sometimes huilca [sacred] bamba from pampa [flat place]. Old spelling is sometimes uilcapampa. The willka / huilca/ uilca is derived from the name of a tree from which an hallucinogenic snuff was obtained. Anadenanthera colubrina /or peregrina

Is the name given to a range of mountains and to a district of the province of Concepción as well as a small town between the Urubamba and Apurimac rivers in the eastern Andes of Peru. It is also the name used to describe the last refuge of the Inca / Inka. Sometimes the place was known as 'Vilcabamba The Old'

The most sacred area is centred on a small, high plain. The site is known as Rosaspata. Once it was called Vitcos or Vitcus/ or old spelling Uitcos. Here there are over 20 different small Inca sites. Nearby is the famous Inca shrine or huaca / waka of Ñusta Isspana [Ñusta'aj Jisp'anan] sometimes written as Ñusta Ispana or Isppana / Ñusta Hispana and Ñusta España. According to Cusco Quechua historians the name is derived from the Quechua language meaning the 'place where the Inca handmaidens urinated' A ñusta being one of the Inca sun virgins. The Quechua name seems to be related to a divination channel on the main rock of the shrine. Such divinations were used in Andean commumities until recent times so giving some credence to the description.

The other names appear to be modern corruptions perhaps for decency and often the place is known by the name Chuquepalta. also Chukipalta and earlier as Chukip' alpa.

The central rock of the shrine at Ñusta Isspana is the Yurak Rumi meaning simply ' white rock' in Quechua. Another spelling is Yuraj rumi.

Choquequirao is a major Inca site which at one time was considered as a contender for being the 'Lost City of Vilcabamba'. Other spellings include:-Choqquequirau, Choquequirau and Choquekirao. Sahuite is another sacred rock . Other spellings include:- Sawite / Sayhuite. These sites on the the western side of the range by the Apurimac