Salkantay (Quechua Sallqantay, from sallqa, 'wild, untamed'), the highest peak of the Cordillera Vilcabamba, is regularly paired with Ausangate in Quechua folk religion as one of the two paramount apus of the Cusco region: Ausangate ruling the ranges to the south-east and Salkantay those to the west, above the Machu Picchu sanctuary. Regional belief characterizes him as an authoritative and easily angered male lord of storms, hail and the wild high puna, to whom travellers and herders direct coca offerings when crossing his passes. Johan Reinhard has argued that the sacred geography of Machu Picchu itself is oriented toward Salkantay, indicating the antiquity of the mountain's cult beneath its living folk veneration.