Alessandra and I decided to take heed of our archeological side and visit some of the sites. Mainly, we wanted to go see the Huacas del Luna y Sol. We planned to leave around 10AM. That means we left around 11:30. By the time we got to the Plaza de Armas, all the tours for the Huacas del Luna and Sol had already left.
We decided instead to take a tour that visited Huaca del Arco Iris, Chan Chan, and then stopped by Huanchaco.
The shops around the plaza de armas all work for a larger tourist company. They sell the tour, take a commision and then guide you to another companies bus and pay them the rest of the fee. It turns out they over booked our tours. They asked us to wait in a nearby hotel for about 10 minutes. We then joined the tour in a taxi.
When we came to the first Huaca, we were a little late but we did catch some of it.
On the tour we met an english speaking columbian, and lesbian couple, and a Canadian doing a 2 year doctoral study for anthropology in Peru.
Huaca del Arco Iris - The Dragon Temple.
The Huaca del Dragon , or as it is called, Huaca del Arco Iris is located in the north, on the outskirts of the city of Trujillo and near Chan Chan in Peru .
This is a great monument religious, ceremonial and administrative center built in adobe, whose murals are decorated with friezes in relief showing stylized human figures and representing the rainbow.
While some archaeologists attribute this monument to the Chimu Culture (years 1100-1450), others claim that this shrine was built between 800 and thousand of our era by the Chimu culture .
Chan Chan -
The largest Pre-Columbiancity in South America, Chan Chan is an archaeologicalsite located in the Peruvianregion of La Libertad, five km west of Trujillo.[1] Chan Chan covers an area of approximately 20 km² and had a dense urban center of about 6 km².[2] Chan Chan was constructed by theChimor (the kingdom of theChimú), a late intermediate period civilization which grew out of the remnants of theMoche civilization. The vastadobe city of Chan Chan was built by the Chimu around AD 850 and lasted until its conquest by the Inca Empirein AD 1470. It was the imperial capital of the Chimor until it was conquered in the 15th century. It is estimated that around 30,000 people lived in the city of Chan Chan.
Chan Chan was added as aUNESCO World Heritage Sitein 1986. The city is severely threatened by storms from El Niño, which cause heavy rains and flooding on the Peruvian coast. It is in a fertile, well-watered section of the coastal plain.[3] The city's ruins are additionally threatened by earthquakes and looters. Present-day visitors to Chan Chan can enter the Tschudi Complex, believed to be one of the later citadels built in the city. There are also several other Chimú and Moche ruins in the area around Trujillo. This site was discovered by the ConquistadorFrancisco Pizarro.
The city is composed of ten walled citadels which housed ceremonial rooms, burial chambers, temples, reservoirs and some residences. Chan Chan is a triangular city surrounded by walls 50–60 feet high. A distinguishable aspect of Chan Chan is that there are no enclosures which open to the north. The tallest walls shelter against south-westerly winds from Peru's coast. Northern-facing walls gain the greatest exposure to the sun, serving both to block the wind and absorb sunlight where fog is frequent. The numerous walls throughout the city create a labyrinth of passages.
The walls themselves were constructed ofadobe brick and were then covered with a smooth surface into which intricate designs were carved. There are two styles of design present in these carvings: one is a ‘realistic’ representation of subjects such as birds, fish, and small mammals; and the other is a more graphic, stylized representation of the same subjects. The carvings at Chan Chan depict crabs, turtles, and nets for catching various sea monsters. Chan Chan, unlike most other coastal ruins in Peru, is located extremely close to the Pacific Ocean. In 1998, The "Master Plan for Conservation and Management of the Chan Chan Archeological Complex" is drawn up by the Freedom National Culture Institute of Peruwith contributions from the World Heritage Foundation - WHR, ICCROM and GCI. The Plan is approved by the Peruvian Government, with involvement at the highest levels up until today.
Irrigation
In order to increase the amount of farmland surrounding the city, a vast network of canals that diverted water from the Moche river into the area around the city was installed.[4] It was only with the construction of these canals that the city's population could increase. Before the canals were dug, the city relied on a number of wells that were dug up to 15 meters into the ground.[5]Many of the canals to the north of the city were destroyed by a catastrophic flood in c. 1100 AD, which was likely the key motivation for a need for the Chimú to refocus their economy towards one rooted in foreign resources rather than subsistence farming.[5]
Threats to Chan Chan
As the world's largest adobe city, the ancient structures of Chan Chan are today threatened by erosion due to changes in weather patterns - heavy rains, flooding, strong winds.[6][7]
Reliefs describing different currents of the ocean.
This fish net design is present all over the palace.
Fresh water spring inside the palace. In ancient times this provided water inside the palace. After irrigation practices changed, the spring dried up. With recent changes it has started to fill again but because no one is using the water, the had to drill a drain to keep it from flooding Chan Chan.
A view of the inside of the palace. After the death of the ruler, the palace would be abandoned and another one built.
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