Apu Mama Simona is mountain goddess of the Quechua tradition.
A female-conceived protective lady over the city of Cusco.
Apu Mama Simona is a low mountain range northwest of Cusco, popularly regarded as a female Apu and protective spirit of the city. She is associated with fertility, protection and the balance of male and female forces of nature.
To be honest in classification: the evidence base is thin and strongly oral and tourism-shaped. This is more likely a more recent Apu construction than a deeply documented pre-Columbian cult, which this page openly states.
Type: local protective lady with fertility connection
Origin: northwest of Cusco, Cusco region
Texts: hardly any specialist literature, predominantly oral and tourism-related sources
Period: predominantly recent, more recent construction
Appearance: low, city-adjacent mountain with a female-read silhouette
The tradition is predominantly oral and shaped by tourism; much suggests a more recent construction rather than an old body of texts.
The Ccorca area northwest of Cusco, near Saqsayhuaman; the point of reference for the veneration is above all the city of Cusco itself.
Very thin: in the cited specialist literature, Mama Simona is barely traceable; no dedicated academic monograph can be found.
Quechua and Spanish: The name is a hybrid of Mama, Quechua for mother and a female honorific, and the Spanish-sounding proper name Simona; the origin is therefore uncertain. Folk narratives partly trace it back to a hacienda owner or a powerful healer named Simona.
Appearance
Mama Simona has a silhouette softly read as female; a woman’s face is said to be recognisable in the summit rock, a folk motif of interpretation. She is not a high peak, but a low, city-adjacent mountain.
Effect
As Cusco’s local protective lady, Mama Simona is thought of energetically and in terms of fertility, standing for the balance of male and female forces of nature.
An overview of Cusco’s protective lady and her narrow source base.
Popularly regarded as a female Apu; the evidence base is oral and tourism-related, and the construction is presumably recent.
The city of Cusco and the spiritual practice of its residents and visitors; the reference is local, not regional.
Low mountain range in the Ccorca area near Saqsayhuaman; a woman’s face is popularly recognised in the summit rock.
Protection and fertility for Cusco as well as the imagined balance of male and female forces of nature.
Despacho and Pago practices as well as modern, neo-Andean and tourism-shaped ceremonies; no Inca-era sacrificial site is known.
Other mountains in the Cusco area read as female; structurally, she is close to the Pachamama-related protective figures.
The name is a hybrid of Mama, Quechua for mother and a female honorific, and the Spanish-sounding proper name Simona; for this reason alone the origin is uncertain. Folk narratives partly trace it back to a hacienda owner or a powerful healer named Simona, but this remains legend, not etymology.
The mountain lies in the Ccorca area near Saqsayhuaman and is not a high peak, but a low, city-adjacent mountain. In the cited specialist literature, Mama Simona is barely traceable; the available works only provide the general Apu and Pachamama context into which the figure fits.
Mama Simona is a destination for hiking and spiritual tourism; the label female Apu is strong in the media.
From a religious-studies perspective, Apu Mama Simona has the thinnest evidence base of the Apus treated here, predominantly oral and tourism-related. Important clarifications: the name is not purely Quechua; the Simona derivation is legend, not etymology; and the claim that this is a central pre-Columbian Cusco Apu is overstated, since its real significance today is above all local and spiritual-touristic.
What is documented above all are Despacho and Pago practices, in which coca leaves convey the offering to the Apu, along with modern, neo-Andean and tourism-shaped ceremonies; concretely, all of this is only weakly and predominantly recently attested. No confirmed Inca-era sacrificial site is known, which should be honestly noted: the cult of Mama Simona is a cult of the present.
Mama Simona stands alongside other Apus and Cerros read as female in the Cusco region and is structurally close to the female protective figures grouped around the earth mother Pachamama. She shares the concept of the venerated mountain with the Aymara Achachila and the great Apus such as Apu Salkantay.
Is Mama Simona a female Apu?
She is popularly described this way, yet the evidence is thin and her female status is not confirmed.
Where does the name come from?
From Mama, mother, and the Spanish-sounding proper name Simona; the derivation from a healer or hacienda owner is legend, not etymology.
Is she an ancient pre-Columbian Apu?
This claim is overstated; her real significance today is above all local and spiritual-touristic.
Recommended internal links:
Further standard works in the bibliography.
Whether Mama Simona, as the female Apu of Cusco, is an ancient power or a recent interpretation is not settled by the thin body of sources; as the mountain goddess of the city, she has nonetheless found a firm place in Cusco’s living practice.
Against its influence, cross-cultural tradition names these protective means:
Compare in the Protection Compass →Recommended protective means
The simplest protective means in this collection: 41 layers of fine gold 999, platinum, silver and silicon, manufactured in Ruhla, Thuringia. It requires no activation, is bound to no person, and is effective within a radius of around 50 meters, even without being worn.
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