HUANCAVELICA, a department of central Peru, bounded by the departments of Junin, north, Ayacucho, east and south, Ica and Lima, west. Area, 8,30o sq.m.; pop. (estimated 1927), 230,00o. It is a region of lofty peaks, dark lakes, high valleys and the headwaters of great streams, chief of which is the Mantaro. The only finished roads are a section of the sierra trunkline in the valley of the Mantaro and part of the Huancavelica-Lircai high way. Communication is still largely by mule. The chief resources are silver, copper, lead, coal, tungsten and mercury; chief prod ucts, wheat and other cereals (Acobamba), potatoes and livestock, especially alpacas. The capital, Huancavelica, about 8o m. south of Huancayo, with which it has been connected by rail since Dec. 1926 (altitude 12,464 ft.; pop., about 6,000), is in a cold and remote valley, surrounded by mountains. There are no modern improvements, but substantial stone houses and several fine churches of the colonial period. It is 16o m. from the port of Pisco. The history of Huancavelica is interwoven with that of the Santa Barbara mercury mine, 2,000 feet above the town—in a seam of cinnabar of varying breadth, 4o m. in length—from ics acquisition by the Spanish crown in 157o to its purchase by the Fernandini interests in 1915. Other towns are Castrovirreina, noted for its silver mines, Pampas and Lircai.