Northern Peru and The Incas
Northern Peru and The Incas
Northern Peru and The Incas
During my recent trip to Northern Peru to fill in the gaps in my knowledge, I followed in the footsteps of the fascinating Moche. As one of the pre-Incan civilisations, they were socially, politically and culturally very developed and it is believed it as these traits that enabled the Incas to thrive in Southern Peru for nearly 100 years.
Many Pre-Incan sites remain near Trujillo. Amongst others, I visited Huaca del Sol y de la Luna (Temples of the sun and Moon) built by the Moche and the archeological site of Chan Chan, an incredible sprawling town covering nearly 20 km2. I was most intrigued by Museo de Cao, home to the mummified remains of 'Senora de Cao'. Her tattooed body buried with numerous ceremonial artifacts, leading you to wonder what important role she played in Moche history.
I was privileged to meet with the leading Peruvian archaeologist Dr Walter Alva, who unearthed the tomb of the 'Lord of Sipan'. Untouched by thieves, the tomb is one of the most significant archaeological discoveries in the world, containing the mummified remains of a Moche warrior and leader. The majority of the finds are now housed in The Tumbes Reales Museum of Sipan and is a truly fascinating exhibition.
Off the beaten track, visiting the archaeological site of San Jose de Moro is a real adventure. This is one of the most important cemetery sites ever discovered, containing ritual burials from numerous Mochica civilisations. The excavations have given archaeologists an incredible insight into the beliefs, artwork, traditions and governmental structure of these ancient societies.
I spent only a fraction of my time in Peru exploring these archaeological sites, however they give a fascinating insight into the incredible history of Peru. For anyone with a keen interest in archaeology I cannot recommend Northern Peru enough.
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Having attended atalkby thefamous explorerJohn Hemming at the Parabola Arts Centre in Cheltenham as part of the Cheltenham Literature Festival on Sunday I was inspired to write a blog.
Being chairman of the Anglo-Peruvian society, famous author of the Conquest of the Incas and once a director and secretary of the Royal Geographic society John Hemming is a real inspirationalist and fascinating gentleman.
During the talk he spoke about Inca Masonry which was absolutely fascinating and took me back to my trips to the south of Peru to sites such as Sacsayhuaman and Korikancha.
In addition he briefly covered new interpretation of sites and recent discoveries which I found incredibly interesting as to the new theories of the purposes of sites such as Machu Picchu, Choquequirao andPisac were royal estates for Pachacuti who transformed the Inca empire in Cuzco and his sons.
John Hemming highlighted Chinchero, Raqchi and Vilnacota (Sacred Valley of the Incas as his personal favourites and mentioned the work of american archaeologist and newspaper editor George Squier.
I queued on his book signing for the release of his 2010 book Monuments of the Incas and we spoke about my trip to the North of Peru as it turned out I was following in his recent footsteps in Aprilon my recent trip to Peru.
Shortly Vincent Lee archaelogist and author shall be travelling to meet up with John Hemming and Hugh Thomson author and explorer famous for the White Rock who is leading a trip for Steppes to Espiritu Pampa next September to celebrate the centenary of Hiram Binghams discovery of Machu Picchu.
A week prior to the talk whilst leaving Peru it was hot off the press in Peruvian newspapers that Huayna Picchu is being excavated again as they have just found a phenomenally large area which has just been discovered, thought to be the storage areas and just in time for Hiram Bingham's centenary in 2011.
Contact Emma to discuss a trip to Peru or regarding Hugh Thomson's Espiritu Pampa trip September 2011. We have more centenary trip ideas which I am presently working upon....
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