From the arrival of the Spaniards, and starting from the construction of the church, it left delineating the town, seated in the inferior part of the basin of the river Huasamayo. This it originates in the skirt of the mountain of Tilcara , to 2.900 m .s.n.m., and in their half tract it allows cultivations of irrigable that take advantage of the patches built in prehispanic times.

Plus below, the bed is encased when crossing a wall of mountain of hard rocks, imposing place that it has received the suggestive name of Throat of the Devil. Until there you arrives for an on the way to cornice from where you can appreciate a long tract of the gulch.

Tilcara settled on the last tract of the river Huasamayo in whose center a conoide torrenticio of truly colossal size rises: 1,5 km long and 110 m of difference. Their location is exceptional because it is the only town of the gulch that is in the oriental band of the river.

The name Tilcara remembers to the indigenous partiality that there inhabited and that it lifted the most important strength in the place. In 1593, Francisco of Argañaraz and Mujia, founder of the city of San Salvador of Jujuy , was awarded the it commends of Tilcara and this passed at the hands of his descendants.

At the same time that the heirs of Argañaraz were happened as gentlemen of it commends it, the institution of the cacicazgo lasted in the heirs of Viltipoco, indigenous commander that had headed to the omaguacas in its confrontation, in 1594, with the conquering Argañaraz. Last name caciques Viltipoco, Chapor and Vilti governed the tribe at least until ends of the XVII century.

The town prospered during the XVIII century. In 1773 it was divided in two the rectory of Humahuaca and the new rectory that buy-day from Huacalera to León, it had their headquarters in Tumbaya. In 1777 it was solved that the parish priest was in Tilcara and puts to the assistant in Tumbaya. In 1860 Tilcara official-mind was designated as headquarters of the rectory.

From principles of this century the town became a summer center of importance for the jujeños and, later, in tourist center that attracted diverse people coming from the whole country. They also began in the Pucará the investigations and the excavations that have continued until our days.

Due to it, both cultural facts - the tourism and the scientific investigation - they have caused that, at the present time, the population's tilcareña ethnic and cultural composition is very varied, including coyas of the highland, descending of the omaguacas, middle class of Jujuy, investigators of the Institute of Anthropology of Buenos Aires and artisans and travelers of diverse parts of the country or of the foreigner.