Chan Chan, Peru
Under clear cool desert skies Chan Chan has the look of a mud brick city melting into the neighboring sea. When one first looks across the wide vast expanse of desert the scene gives one a feeling of an endless lumps of sand extending as far as the eye can see. Not a blade of grass can be seen anywhere; just sand, sand and more sand. Surprisingly, the central ceremonial area of the city has an elegance and grace that transforms the sand into a landscape of architectural luxury. Here there are 9, 10 or 11 (a matter of some contention among archaeologists) magnificent “palace” complexes, giving a feel for a powerful people strangely alien to us. Yet one can feel the forces of power centered in Chan Chan, a city which once ruled an empire extending for over 1000 km along the Andean coast.
We entered the Tchudi complex through a narrow doorway that led between two huge walls into an expansive maze of hallways and courtyards decorated with friezes in shapes of fish, squirrels, pelicans and other wildlife. These opened into a living area made up of several dozen decorated spacious rooms, one of which had niches for ancestral mummies and offerings to feed the mummies.
In typical Andean fashion clan groups lived together and nourished ancestral mummies very tenderly, - not surprising considering that the mummies continued to own the land upon which their descendants depended for their own wealth.
At the end of one long narrow hallway, we came upon a surprising courtyard dominated by a large square sunken pool, partly overgrown with brilliant green Totora rushes, used for making reed boats and thatching. The water table is only one meter below the surface, so in spite of the all consuming desert, the city had easy access to fresh water.
In this maze of rooms, courtyards, halls, and decorated entrances, it difficult to visualize how the powerful capitol of the extensive Chimu Empire really felt and functioned. Who lived here and how did they rule their empire from this silent city enclosed by thick high walls? There is little evidence of warfare here and the walls do not appear to have been defensive. Settlement dates from about 800 AD and extends up to the Inca conquest around 1470 AD, when this once great city appears to have been abandoned.
Predating the Chimu Empire the Moche, a blood thirsty but artistic civilization ruled this strip of Andean coastline from their capital just a few miles to the south of the city of Trujillo. The site is named after its two main surviving temples, the Huaca de la Luna and the Huaca del Sol which were built on a large platform below the picture perfect little mountain called Cerro Blanco or “white mountain.” Here the Huaca de la Luna, a once sand covered lump of dissolved adobe is being excavated by archaeologists from the University of Trujillo to reveal an astonishing series of brilliant friezes depicting bloody gods such as the decapitator and a many legged vicious man eating spider. Six construction phases have so far been uncovered, each having been filled in prior to rebuilding leaving the friezes well preserved under layers of fill. In the upper level of the building a burial of 42 individuals was found, some of which definitely show evidence of sacrifice.
Along the seaside, we stopped to get a close look at the ingenious reed boats made of the Totora reed, a perfect adaptation to fishing in the shallow coastal waters of the Bay. In the 1960’s the search for transpacific contacts brought Peruvian reed boats into the forefront of scientific scrutiny, but perfect as they are for this environment, they can hardly compete with the technologically advanced long double hulled canoes of the Polynesians who undoubtedly visited this coast, taking back the sweet potato, and leaving behind a small Oceanic chicken.
Under clear cool desert skies Chan Chan has the look of a mud brick city melting into the neighboring sea. When one first looks across the wide vast expanse of desert the scene gives one a feeling of an endless lumps of sand extending as far as the eye can see. Not a blade of grass can be seen anywhere; just sand, sand and more sand. Surprisingly, the central ceremonial area of the city has an elegance and grace that transforms the sand into a landscape of architectural luxury. Here there are 9, 10 or 11 (a matter of some contention among archaeologists) magnificent “palace” complexes, giving a feel for a powerful people strangely alien to us. Yet one can feel the forces of power centered in Chan Chan, a city which once ruled an empire extending for over 1000 km along the Andean coast.
We entered the Tchudi complex through a narrow doorway that led between two huge walls into an expansive maze of hallways and courtyards decorated with friezes in shapes of fish, squirrels, pelicans and other wildlife. These opened into a living area made up of several dozen decorated spacious rooms, one of which had niches for ancestral mummies and offerings to feed the mummies.
In typical Andean fashion clan groups lived together and nourished ancestral mummies very tenderly, - not surprising considering that the mummies continued to own the land upon which their descendants depended for their own wealth.
At the end of one long narrow hallway, we came upon a surprising courtyard dominated by a large square sunken pool, partly overgrown with brilliant green Totora rushes, used for making reed boats and thatching. The water table is only one meter below the surface, so in spite of the all consuming desert, the city had easy access to fresh water.
In this maze of rooms, courtyards, halls, and decorated entrances, it difficult to visualize how the powerful capitol of the extensive Chimu Empire really felt and functioned. Who lived here and how did they rule their empire from this silent city enclosed by thick high walls? There is little evidence of warfare here and the walls do not appear to have been defensive. Settlement dates from about 800 AD and extends up to the Inca conquest around 1470 AD, when this once great city appears to have been abandoned.
Predating the Chimu Empire the Moche, a blood thirsty but artistic civilization ruled this strip of Andean coastline from their capital just a few miles to the south of the city of Trujillo. The site is named after its two main surviving temples, the Huaca de la Luna and the Huaca del Sol which were built on a large platform below the picture perfect little mountain called Cerro Blanco or “white mountain.” Here the Huaca de la Luna, a once sand covered lump of dissolved adobe is being excavated by archaeologists from the University of Trujillo to reveal an astonishing series of brilliant friezes depicting bloody gods such as the decapitator and a many legged vicious man eating spider. Six construction phases have so far been uncovered, each having been filled in prior to rebuilding leaving the friezes well preserved under layers of fill. In the upper level of the building a burial of 42 individuals was found, some of which definitely show evidence of sacrifice.
Along the seaside, we stopped to get a close look at the ingenious reed boats made of the Totora reed, a perfect adaptation to fishing in the shallow coastal waters of the Bay. In the 1960’s the search for transpacific contacts brought Peruvian reed boats into the forefront of scientific scrutiny, but perfect as they are for this environment, they can hardly compete with the technologically advanced long double hulled canoes of the Polynesians who undoubtedly visited this coast, taking back the sweet potato, and leaving behind a small Oceanic chicken.
