Okay – we know that archaeological sites are not everyone’s cup of tea. But really – what wonders there are close to Trujillo. Trujillo itself (named after Pizarro for his home town in Extramadura, Spain) is incredibly Spanish-looking – pictures to come. But we started the day by hiring Manuel and his gloriously comfortable and air-conditioned large SUV – absolute bliss after yesterday’s journey in the non-airconditioned taxi – to take us to the first of two sites: Huacas del Sol y de la Luna. These are two enormous adobe pyramids built by the Moche people (100 AD – 800 AD).
The first bigger pyramid (El Sol) is not accessible to tourists because it’s disintegrating as a result of El Nino events and the heavy-duty wind that blows all the time, but it’s thought to have been an administration centre. It’s the largest pre-Columbian structure in Peru even though a third of it has been washed away. (Yes, that’s Sue for scale.)
The second (La Luna) is absolutely extraordinary. It lies at the foot of a sacred mountain.
Our English-speaking guide Rosemary explained that we were looking at at least five temples – one nested inside the next. The Moche rebuilt the temple by filling in the older one with adobe bricks and then building the next temple in exactly the same pattern around the first one.
The Moche had left the valley – probably after an El Nino event of heavy rain and abandoned the temples but the damn Spanish had driven great holes into the structure searching for treasure and thus damaging the whole thing.
Throughout the temple layers, there are beautiful friezes with stylized figures, some perfectly preserved.
These give you a sense of one temple inside another:
The museum next door was absolutely stunning, displaying many wonderful Moche grave goods but since we have already posted some, we leave you only with this one of the principal deity which caught our eye:
And on to our second site – Chan Chan, an enormous adobe city built by the people who came after the Moche – the Chimu. The city is mostly unexcavated but covers a massive 20 sq kms – the largest adobe city in the world. Again, El Nino floods have eroded the city, but we visited one of the nine palaces. (The Spaniards of course took all the gold, silver and ceramics when they arrived.)
We visited the one palace that’s been excavated – Nik An – which is now covered and protected from the next El Nino which is expected soon. Our lovely guide took us through the enormous palace – hard to give you a sense of the scale but here’s the entrance with Sue for measure:
We were enchanted with the friezes which have been uncovered – some only very recently excavated – around the various temples and squares. These are squirrels!
And these are fish swimming in one direction (there’s another lot swimming the other way):
There were pelican friezes everywhere as well as other creatures:
And maybe this gives a sense of the place – it’s only a small section of what we explored:
After that, we were exhausted so the wonderful Manuel took us to a restaurant at nearby Huanchaco, a very busy (it’s Sunday) little fishing village to eat at a fantastic restaurant called ‘Big Ben’ of all things. Here’s Manuel’s lunch:
And here’s the one Sue and I shared:
And finally – here’s the Pacific Ocean which we overlooked:
We had to come back and have a sleep after all that!
Loving the pelican and fish friezes.
My memory is pretty hazy about where we stayed on the coast but name of the fishing village sounds familiar.
You’ll need a long rest when you get back to UK!
Yes, still plenty to pack in in last few days : sites to see, museums to marvel at! No sightings of actual pelicans yet ( I love pelicans) ..
It looks amazing! I loved the animal freezes! Your lunch looked a bit like ceviche… very nice!
It was indeed ceviche! Speciality of the slightly mysteriously named Big Ben restaurant. The guy organising the parking was called Eddington – make of that what you will…
Fantastic! Particularly enjoying the ‘Sue for scale’
Well, M quite often tells me to stand somewhere for scale – I know my place …
The friezes are amazing and so crisp and beautifully preserved that they might have been carved yesterday. The deity looks very fierce – what do you think all those lines etched around his face might be – tattoos or just a stranger to moisturiser?
I think some of the friezes were preserved because buried in sand – and they are very striking. The moisturiser god? No idea – looks grumpy and angry to me, raging about another Nino event..
I loved the pyramids – always sun and moon – and frescoes.
Beautiful photos, as ever.
Sue measures up so well.
It seems Miriam is measuring up on one?
Thank you, Elizabeth – I do my best to provide scale and stand where I’m directed…
I just loved both those places although I had rather assumed that the fact there were gold etc artefacts meant the Spanish hadn’t found them. After all, there are virtually no Incan artefacts left. We had lunch in huanchaco – probably also a ceviche though I can’t remember. Were the fabulous fishing boats still there?
I’m sure you’re right about the gold artefacts – the Spanish would definitely have looted and melted them. They took the trouble to burn the statues of gods – idols- at Chan Chan. And yes, the fishing boats are still there and still in use!
Fabulous photos, some showing detail and others revealing the breadth and colours of the landscape. The colours are wonderful.
Is it warm enough to swim?
Definitely too cold to swim! We saw people splashing about but mostly wearing clothes – the Pacific is big waves and chilly water I think..
I am learning so much more about Peru from your blog, different sites, different cultures, different hats, and who knew Peru grew sugar cane.
Well, you and me both Lian! In terms of the sugar cane, which went on for miles, this particular are grows the bulk of Peruvians sugar. Also asparagus and avocados..