The Chimu: the most amazing civilization you never heard of!

          

Today we docked in Salaverry, Peru. Salaverry is not the worst place to be docked –we are still waiting to see who wins that race… Salaverry is the port for Trujillo, Peru. Trujillo is the center of what was once a vast pre-Hispanic empire.



Trujillo was the location of the center of several ancient civilizations that pre-dated western explorers by many centuries. The Chimu and the Moche were the most outstanding of these, but didn’t last long after the Inca found them. Of course, then there were the Spanish, but they are really Johnny-come-latelys.

Our day began with a ride from the port to near the center of Trujillo and the home of the Huaca “Dragon” Temple. The temple is a 1100-year old temple from the Chimu empire. All of the old temples and cities were built of adobe. This temple was used mainly for religious purposes: read human and animal sacrifice. We were only there for about a half-hour as the guide told us stories of ancient rituals. 



This is the entrance to the Huaca Temple. One way in, no way out for those “fortunate” enough to be chosen… Note the raised paneling on the walls. Thati s original (over 1100 year old). The smooth wall portions are the restorations. This site is not a UNESCO World Heritage site because too much of the work, unlike Chan Chan which we will see below, is restoration and not original.


This is a view of the interior of the Huaca Temple. The ramp structure to the left edge of the picture is the ascent to the sacrificial altar. The wall section where we are all gathered is covered in depictions of the gods, animals, and events that governed the lives of the Chimu people.




 Here is a close-up of one of the wall panels. It depicts the dragons in the middle with a rainbow arcing over them. Directly below the dragons is vthe spade-shaped knife that was used in the sacrificial rituals. It is shown sitting in the ritual bowl that would catch the blood of the sacrificee. 

We then re-boarded the buses for the trip out to the Chan Chan ruins. The Chan Chan ruins are a UNESCO World Heritage site and are an active archeological dig. The site is an entire city that is being restored. The ruins represent the largest clay city in pre-Hispanic America. The entire site dates back to about 1100 AD. It covers almost two square miles and was home to about 30,000 inhabitants. Because of its location near the shore, they both fished and raised crops: corn; vegetables; fruits. 


To remain a UNESCO site, they cannot restore over 30% of what is dug. That is, at least 70% of what you see on a visit must be original. Think about how that must affect their restoration of adobe.

Adobe is nothing more than water, sand, clay, and small stones – all native materials. The modern archeologists do have one interesting trick: they slit the leaves of the Aloe Vera plant and a sticky goo comes out. The leavers are immersed in water and weighted to hasten the “goo process.” The “sticky water is then used as a binding material on the tops of the walls and restored facades to prevent further deterioration. Apparently, that is good enough for the UNESCO folks since they have been using that technique for years. 


We are standing in front of one of the main gathering areas for the Chimu rituals. These rituals were a constant in the lives of the Chimu and most of the city was built around their needs.

In the pictures, the distances and wall heights are deceptive. The outer walls were about 33-35 feet high and the inner walls were about 9-11 feet high. They were also earthquake-prone. Therefore, they left a number of the adobe brick layers in the walls without any sand mortar so the layers of brick could slide if jiggled by a quake. They also made the walls trapezoidal in cross-section and added low terraces inside and out to further protect the walls. The terraces are those low, flat “steps” to the left and right of our group as we walked along the pathway. Clever for a society that had no computers, no heavy equipment, and no seismography equipment...

 

Yours truly outfitted for the trek to his next big adventure – finding some shade, food, and adult beverage (not necessarily in that order…).

We then proceeded back to the pier and off we went on our next adventure: lunch! 

We are now underway to Lima where we have an overnight stop and two days to explore. Three years ago we passed through Lima on our way to Machu Picchu and really didn’t get to see any of it.

This time we will be doing some local tours. 

Stay tuned…