This area had long been settled by the Cañari indigenous people, who called it Hatun Cañar.

The complex was used as a fortress and storehouse from which to resupply Inca troops en route to northern Ecuador.

At Ingapirca they also developed a complex underground aqueduct system to provide water to the entire compound.

[citation needed] The Temple of the Sun is the most significant building whose partial ruins survive at the archeological site.

[citation needed] Charles Marie de La Condamine became the first European to make a scientific description of Ingapirca, which he visited in 1739 in the course of his expedition to South America.