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Published: December 9th 2010
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1st Dec 2010
We caught a late night bus to Trujillo with El Dorado, fist class tickets for the trip are 45 soles from the El Dorado office as oppose to 75 soles from some of the tour operators in town for the exact same bus. The 9 hour overnight journey was comfortable and uneventful, we grabbed a taxi in Trujillo and headed straight for Haunchaco to a pre booked hostel. We moved hostels early the next morning as we had found a lovely little place at 10 soles a night called Oceana, it is one of the better places we have stayed and at $4 us a night we can't go wrong, its clean secure and the couple that run it are good folks.
One of the reasons we had come to this area was to see Chan Chan, a site of the oldest clay city in the world, it is located 4kms from the city of Trujillo and a 10 minute collectivo ride from Haunchaco (1sol).
Getting off the bus you have a 1km walk to the main site, Imposing adobe walls greet you as you near the main site which was first built about 1100 years
ago and remained a huge city of between 100,000-250,000 people until the Spanish came when it was decimated and fell to ruin.
Made up of 9 huge complexes that cover 20 squared ams the complex known as Tschudi is the most excavated and is open the the public. Each of the 9 complexes are thought to have erected by the 9 rulers who reigned over the city throughout the areas history. Each of the 9 would have housed the royalty, dignitaries and the holy men whilst the general population lived outside this structures.
During the centuries the city was inhabited by many cultures who came and went, the most notable the Chimu(Chimbor) and the Moche.
The story goes that the city was founded by a chap named Tacaynamo who came from the sea by boat accompanied by his servants and holy men, the people who lived in this area believed the sea to be infinite and worshipped Tacaynamo and he became their first ruler and supreme deity. His origins are unknown.
It was the Spanish who named the city Chan Chan which means sun sun and its original name has been lost to history, One theory
is that each complex went by the name of the ruler of that era who built each one when his father passed and his remains placed in the new complex where his body became the focus of worship for that complex and so it went until there had been 9 rulers and 9 complexes only ending when the Spanish arrived.
Tschudi is a well excavated site and as our guide Reese explained not all of the carvings are original but are replicas to help us understand how it once was, Many of the original wall engravings are covered by adobe walls built in recent times to protect them from the elements, You do see some of the originals and the structure is well laid out to help you understand its history, I recommend a guide or little books can be purchased at the ticket booth that explain the layout. (Entrance 11 soles, guide 15 soles).
Tschudi was chosen for the main archeological dig primarily because of the relatively good shape of it huge surrounding walls which stands 10-12m high and 3-4 m wide at the base. This complex was built by the Chimu and is built in a
n L shape. Its thought that Tschudi had particular religious significance as it contains numerous plazas and squares. You enter the main square first which has 2 entrances, one large for the dignitaries and 1 small for the common folk, the large entrance is flanked either side by the andean cross (Chakana) a symbol seen all over Peru, it represents The under world, The earth and the sky.
As you walk around the site the walls are adorned with engraving of pelicans, fish, cormorans, sea otters and squirrels, other depict the mountains and the waves but most common are the diamond shaped latticed engravings which represented fishing nets, It becomes clear that these people had a strong connection to the sea even though they also farmed and had an extensive irrigation system for crops, most of the water coming from underground sources. It is apparent that the sea was a constant and reliable source of food therefore of immense importance.
The moon was worshipped rather than the sun, Some think it was because it was the Chimu noticed that only the moon eclipsed the sun and not the other way around also the moon could be present in
the sky as well as the sun but not the opposite. A more likely theory to the moon worship is that this area is extremely arid, rain is rare and therefore water is scarce so the sun more than likely made these people's life difficult. Throughout the city there are roughly 80 wells, 80% of which are inside the complexes leaving the general population with a small number of wells in which to draw water.
The erosion of the city as a whole is believed to have happened after centuries of natural catastrophes and human destruction, indeed outside the the excavated areas one can make out the lines of the walls of the remaining complexes with teams of excavators working hard trying to save the site from the winds and fogs that pound the fragile walls.
In the centre of Tschudi lies a series of underground tombs, one very large one thought to have held the deity and 41 others probably his family, all of the tombs have been looted over the centuries leaving the archeologists to theorize as to how it originally was.
This is a truly impressive ruin and it is sad to see that
it seems to be losing its battle against the elements and at 20 square kms it's a huge undertaking to protect it.
For anyone interested ruins of coastal Peru a visit to Chan Chan is a must.
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