Peru's desert and ancient pyramids

We've spent the last couple of days in Chiclayo, Peru. This area has a lot of similarities to Egypt and is a region rich in archeological sites. The Lambayeque and Moche civilizations predates the Incas. They, similar to the Egyptians, buried their leaders, warriors and priests together with jewellery, artifacts, sacrificial animals, wives and guardians. Archeologists are still uncovering new sites.

We started with a visit to the pyramids themselves. The pyramids here are made with thousands of adobe bricks (adobe bricks are made with mud, clay and straw). The pyramids reach 141 feet high and in the Lambayeque valley, you find 26 major pyramids built from AD 1000. After a rash of looting, the government brought in archeologists to start excavating the sites. They are all now well-protected and the government was successful in recovering some important pieces that had been smuggled out of the country.

They have also constructed a fabulous museum in 2002 to display the treasures from Lord Sipan's tomb which was discovered in 1987. It was fascinating to see the gold and silver jewellery, copper items, necklaces made from millions of small beads carved from shells, gold banners and hundreds of clay pots in pristine condition.

The pictures below are only a small part of Lord Sipan's tomb but his actual tomb with the gold, silver and cooper artifacts are in the new museum where they didn't allow any photographs to be taken.

We have been in a rain forest, a cloud forest, a temperate alpine forest and now we have been in an equatorial dry forest. This area gets very little rain, but the view from above shows it to be a lush green forest. On the ground, the earth is dry and dusty. These trees survive because of their deep roots (as deep as 35 meters). Tucked into the forest are several other adobe pyramids where excavation work is still going on. Unfortunately the accompanying museum was closed today, but they say there was more than a ton of gold found in one of the tombs.

We have been really surprised and fascinated with the sites we have visited and intrigued to see pyramids in this part of the world. We knew so little about Peru before arriving here. And we saw a Peruvian Hairless dog. Too cute for words. You tell me if you agree.