A PYRAMID IN THE CITY
HUACA PUCLLANA
AT NIGHT
Lima, Peru
Huaca Pucllana is "a pre-Colombian adobe-mud ceremonial centre that takes you by surprise," wrote Mark Rowe in The Independent, "both with its staggering visual presence -- painstakingly precise brickwork furnished into the shape of a mini city -- and its location. You practically bump into it after turning the corner of a middle-class street." The shock is even greater at night, especially if you are riding in a car in the big city and this pyramid flooded with lights suddenly materializes, more ethereal than real (above). Could it be some kind of theme park? you wonder in the dark.
No, it is for real, and dates back to about 500 AD. There are a number of on-line resources for exploring different aspects of Huaca Pucllana, also known as Huaca Juliana. A good overall introduction, including to the history of the different peoples who have settled in this area, is to be found here. More is added, including a striking aerial photograph giving some sense of the scale of this huaca, or sacred place, here. For a young man's blog with a series of photographs focusing on the archaeological site, see here. For an up-close-and-personal look at the vertical bricks making up the pyramid complex, and a reminder that "you can chat up archaeologists and visit a museum displaying objects found in the excavations" -- and oh, yes, there is a "well-regarded onsite restaurant" too -- see here.
There are three websites to recommend which feature photographs of the contents of a couple of tombs and the mummies within. The tomb dating around 850 AD is discussed and illustrated here and here. And finally, the most striking photograph (no, not mine, unfortunately) -- of the mummified head of a pre-Incan Wari woman -- whose face bristles with character (and two "big, bright blue orbs in her eye sockets") is here.
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