[1] The site lies some 30 kilometres (19 mi) northeast of Quito in Pedro Moncayo Canton in Pichincha Province at 3,040 metres (9,970 ft) above sea level.

[2] The archaeological park of Cochasqui covers 84 hectares (210 acres) and consists of 15 truncated pyramids and 21 burial mounds, locally called tolas.

Prior to the Inca conquest in the late 15th century, the Andes area of northern Ecuador seems to have been divided into many chiefdoms or statelets made up of people with similar languages and cultures.

[5] Archaeologists have theorized that Cochasqui was a ceremonial and astronomical center, used for meteorological purposes to calculate solstices and aid in determining when crops should be planted.

[6] Archaeologists estimate that the pre-Columbian community of Cochasqui, including the intensely-cultivated farmland surrounding the pyramids and tolas, supported a population of 3,000 people.

Cochasqui is an important place for ceremonies, traditional dances, shamanistic rituals, and marriages with the emphasis on getting in touch with the ancestry of the modern-day country of Ecuador.