Nestled deep within an obscure little valley on the amazonian side of the Cordillera Blanca, I first visited the town of Chavin which is home to 3000 year old ruins representing the first sophisticated work of stone masonry in all of South America; easily predating anything similar in northern Europe.
Ruins of an ancient religious centre consisting of sculpted sunken plazas, broad stone staircases and great rectangular temples take up a huge 50 hectares in the region, all faced with expertly cut ashlars, pillared gateways and air vented, labyrinth-style undergound passages/chambers. One particularly cramped chamber beneath the main temple, houses a 5m-high stone pillar covered in styalised carvings of puma fangs, bird wings, claws, baleful eyes, human hands and swirling symbols, which is believed to represent an ancient god-like deity. The main temple itself had also projected rows of large stone gargoyle heads from it´s exterior, which many now reside in a nearby museum.
My next destination required a visit to the small seaside town of Chimbote which most tour books claim is a dangrous hive of street crime, hence I didn´t linger long. Apart from the nearby ´Sechin ruins´ still being uncovered, Chimbote is on the map as home to Peru´s 2nd largest fishery (eeeew the smell) and as one of the few northern towns to have somehow survived the major earthquake in 1970, despite a local death toll over 50,000 (ironic timing given a similarly sized quake in southern Peru was taking place whilst I was up north there).
The nearby pre-inca Sechin site dates around 1500 BC and represents one of Peru´s most well preserved coastal ruins, consisting of an ancient temple divided into upper and lower sections. The 1st level corresponds to a pyramidal stone construction containing many monoliths whilst the 2nd level´s exterior, made of mud, reveals striking (literally) sculptures of warriors beheading and disemboweling their victims.
Next I visited the coastal city of Trujillo, capital of the region of La Libertad, founded in 1534 by Spanish conquistador Diego de Almagro and named for the birthplace of Francisco Pizarro. Of course more ancient cultures (including the Inca) inhabited this region long before the Spanish took residence, which nearby excavated sites such as the 500-acre ´Chimu complex of Chan Chan´ reveals to the north, with the ´Moche temples of the Moon and Sun´ to the south.
Chan-Chan is the world's largest pre-Hispanic mud-brick city, founded by the ancient Chimu kingdom between A.D. 950 to 1400 and housing possibly 200,000 people at the height of it´s regional dominance. Generally accepted as the culture´s capital, it was built entirely on arid coastal desert, hence the dominating architechural feature of the city includes miles of irrigation canals, inter-valley canals and large, deep, walk-in-wells, which most today have completely dried out due to a lowering of the natural water table since.
Ultimately the conquest by the Inca (approx 1470 AD) may well have broken the backbone of the Chimu economy, with the most skilled minds and tradesmen relocated to their new capital in Cusco. The hairless dog in some below photos, belongs to an ancient, local breed known as ´viringos´ which reside as talisman guardians of antiquity at all archaeological centres in Peru.
Other significant archeological sights are located south of Trujillo, consisting of 2 huge stone pyramids known as the "Huaca de la Luna" and "Huaca de la Sol" (ie. Temples of the Moon and Sun respectively), of which the latter represents the tallest adobe structure in the Americas, built with an estimated 50 million sun-dried, mud bricks.
Considered the former capital of the Moche state (another pre-Inca civilisation), this precious site has since seen irreperable damage as a consequence of looting treasure hunters, including gold obsessed Spanish conquistadors who intentionally diverted the nearby Santa Catalina river which washed more than half the huaca away. Visitors can´t currently visit the Temple of the Sun, yet guided tours of the currently excavated Temple of the Moon, reveal 3 inverted platforms and 4 open courts or plazas taking up most of the assemblage.
Large-scale human sacrifice at Huaca de la Luna became evident when archaeologists uncovered the remains of at least 34 sacrificed adult males in the soft clay of the southeastern court. They had been bound and, judging by the type of wounds inflicted, were probably captured in battle. Interestingly these sacrifices represent a single ritual event, linked by archaeologist Steve Bourget to a season of torrential rains caused by an extreme case of the ´El Nino´ weather phenomenon, which strikes the coast of Sth America at irregular intervals, possibly causing the final abandonment of the pyramids themselves.
Lastly, I decided to kick back for a few days on the nearby beach town of Huanchaco, which offers a long, clean beach, good-sized waves for surfing and a thriving artisan market near the pier for passing tourists. Huanchaco is also apparently one of the few places left in Peru where you can find ´caballitos de totora´ still in use, which are original handmade totora reed boats.
