Monday, July 31, 2006

Chan Chan, Peru

From dust to dust.


The great city of Chan-Chan was the capital of the Moche Empire, just before the Inka took over and annex them in bloody negotiations. The city is just outside of Trujillo and is left alone with no protection. The city that at one point hosted more than 30,000 people is estimated to have more than 100,000 structures. When you walk in this gigantic cemetery of human construction, the weight of the 20 centuries Moche culture fell on you. You move around in a ghost town full of sand. The wind shaping the left over structure will finish the job of the Spanish and the robbers who destroyed the city.


We visited the Huaca Arco Iris (Temple of the Dragon), which dedicated to the rain. It was the only temple from the Moche culture which was painted. Gold was its colour and faked the Spanish on their way to the city of El Dorado.


The Museum of Chan-Chan is just here to show that Peru still have some work to do in preserving its own culture. But the main attraction is the visit of the Palacio Tahudi (Governor Palace). The size of the edifice itself is impressive. We are talking about 4 times the size of a soccer pit, and it was his office. Wonder his house looked like.


The morning we visited as well the 2 temples from the Moche as well.

The Huaca del Sol (Temple of the sun) that you see on the picture, and the Huaca de la Luna (Temple of the moon) from where I took the picture from.

The del Sol is only a quater of what if was before and was rip off by the river near by and the spanish (again!) on their way to the pacific. The de la Luna was used for ceremony purposes and they found some human rest with no head in the cemetery. Guess what, it seems that they were not that friendly with their own people after all.

These giant structure are here to remember us that we all have our time in time.