Chan Chan

We were up early for a truck breakfast ahead of our 8.15am departure for Chan Chan.  Everyone was organised and ready to go before the appointed time, but there was no point setting off early as the site didn't open until 9am and it was only a 25-minute drive away.  As it was, we arrived early and had to wait for the ticket office to open.  Our guide, Yanni, met us as we bought our tickets.  Everyone except Marina decided to join the tour.

Chan Chan is a pre-Columbian adobe city built by the Chimú people.  It is the largest adobe city in the world.  It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1988 and included on the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger in the same year.

Chan Chan is made up of nine citadel cities or small walled cities.  The main structures of each city were a ceremonial pyramid and a large number of rooms and buildings surrounded by large walls.  We only had time to explore one of these cities, but it gave us a flavour of the complex as a whole.  It was built in around 1000AD and survived until 1470 when it was destroyed by the Incas.  Current estimates are that Chan Chan had about 20,000 inhabitants at its founding and as many as 100,000 at its height in 1300.

The elaborate decoration on the walls of Chan Chan reflects the importance of water, particularly the sea, played in Chimú culture.  The high reliefs represent fish, facing north and south, which can be interpreted as representing the two currents that mark the Peruvian coast - the Humboldt current, cold, coming from the south, and the El Niño current, warm, coming from the north.  There are also waves, rhombitos (fishing nets), pelicans, and anzumitos (a mixture of sea lion and otter).

The complex had only one entrance and 12-metre-high walls for better defence.  These walls were wider at their bases (five metres) than at their peaks (one metre) in anticipation of possible tremors on this seismic coast.

Chan Chan is like nowhere else we have ever visited.  It was fascinating to spend to spend some time here.Weiterlesen