I returned to Peru in 2019 after an absence of more than 30 years. I wanted to spend time in the Cordillera Blanca, an area I had only passed through previously, and also the Conchucos, which had been largely out of bounds on account of the Sendero Luminoso. From there I headed north to Huamachuco. But first I spent a few days in Lima, and then went trekking in the Cordillera Huayhuash, a southern outlier of the Cordillera Blanca.
Pachacamac – pre-Inca and modern sanctuary
The pre-Inca shrine and oracle at Pachacamac lies near the coast south-west of Lima. It’s sheer extent can only be appreciated from the air. It includes buried remains left of the main road shown in the picture. There is a modern museum at the entrance housing a display that includes this photograph.
Pachacamac was a shrine so highly venerated that the Incas had not dared tamper with it when they conquered the coastal plain. The sanctuary lay at the top of a vast adobe step pyramid. Anyone climbing to the top was supposed to have fasted for a year.
An extraordinarily well preserved, intricately carved wooden staff found in excavations, on display in the museum.
The sanctuary was ransacked in 1533 by the Conquistadores. Miguel de Estete recorded the event. “And so we entered … into a very small cavern … In the middle a post was planted into the ground with the figure of a man on its head, badly carved and badly formed … Seeing the filth and mockery of the idol, we went out to ask why they thought so highly of something so ugly and dirty.”
Pyramid with ramp. Today the site is more protected than it has ever been since Inca times. Visitors follow walkways and are excluded from most of ruins themselves.
The modern city of Lima has a population of 10 million and houses crowd right up to the protected area of the Pachacamac sanctuary.
The path up to the gigantic pyramid crowned by the ‘Templo del Sol’ is now open to all
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