We head further south, 50 km inland from the coast through arid desert mountains, it's a long truck day, finally arriving at Huanchaco. It's a small fishing and surfing town, pretty grubby by all accounts but our purpose here is to visit Chan Chan, the crumbling imperial city of the Chimu', the largest adobe city in the world dating as far back as 850 AD. The dilapidated city walls enclose an area of 28 sq km and contain the remains of palaces, temples, workshops, gardens, canals and much more. Heavy rains and flooding in 1925 and 1983 damaged vast areas of this world heritage site. The ruins consist of ten great compounds built by the Chimu' emperors. The agricultural wealth stretches 1000 km along the coast. The Chimu' surrendered to the Incas around 1471 after 11 years of siege. It was a very informative visit, interesting and a totally incredible feat from so many hundreds of years ago.
Following this we visited Huaca de la Luna, a religious pyramid. Incredible mural paintings and reliefs were uncovered in the 1990's. The guide remembers when youngsters used to play football all over the ruins. In 2010 two new areas were opened to the public, The Temple Nuevo, from a period 600 to 900 AD and a new museum. Excavations are still in progress with a lot of history still to be unearthed. Well worth visiting.
Adios amigos,
Tony x
1. Hairless Peruvian dog
2-7. Chan Chan, some amazing finds and restoration works.
8. Strange looking bird jumping out on people, Kirsten, company owner doing a brilliant job.
9-14. Huaca de la Luna remains and on oing works.
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