Huayra furnace

A huayra furnace or huayrachinas (meaning "place through which wind blows" in Imperial Quechua) is an Andean artisan furnace of Prehispanic design. Huayras were wind-driven and used to smelt copper.^[1] The furnance has the shape of a small turret with opening for wind to enter and drive the combustion.^[2] Molten metal collects at the bottom together with slag and for most purposes once separated from the slag it needs further processing to remove impurities.^[2]

In Bolivia they were in use at least until the late 19th century and were known form colonial-era description of 1640. Museo Nacional de La Paz in Bolivia host a reconstruction of a huayra.^[1] The Atacama Desert's Tarapacá valley alone had 26 archaeological huayra sites identified by 2013.^[1]