Peru - Lonely Planet Publications [125]
Today, the three dozen or so remaining nuns continue to live a cloistered life in a far corner of the complex while the rest remains open to the public.
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HUMAN SACRIFICE IN THE ANDES
In 1992 local climber Miguel Zárate was guiding an expedition on Nevado Ampato (6310m) when he found curious wooden remnants, suggestive of a burial site, exposed near the icy summit. In September 1995 he convinced American mountaineer and archaeologist Johan Reinhard to climb the peak, which following recent eruptions of the nearby Sabancaya volcano had been coated by ash, melting the snow below and exposing the site more fully. Upon arrival, they immediately found a statue and other offerings, but the burial site had collapsed and there was no sign of a body. Ingeniously, the team rolled rocks down the mountainside and, by following them, Zárate was able to spot the bundled mummy of an Inca girl, which had tumbled down the same path when the icy tomb had crumbled.
The girl had been wrapped and almost perfectly preserved by the icy temperatures for about 500 years, and it was immediately apparent from the remote location of her tomb and from the care and ceremony surrounding her death (as well as the crushing blow to her right eyebrow) that this 12- to 14-year-old girl had been sacrificed to the gods at the summit. For the Incas, mountains were gods who could kill by volcanic eruption, avalanche or climatic catastrophes. These violent deities could only be appeased by sacrifices from their subjects, and the ultimate sacrifice was that of a child.
It took the men days to carry the frozen bundle down to the village of Cabanaconde, from where she was transported, on a princely bed of frozen foodstuffs, in Zárate’s own domestic freezer to the Universidad Católica (Catholic University) in Arequipa to undergo a battery of scientific examinations. Quickly dubbed ‘Juanita, the ice princess,’ the mummy was given her own museum in 1998 (Museo Santury; see below). In total, almost two dozen similar Inca sacrifices have been discovered atop various Andean mountains since the 1950s.
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Leading away from the Orange Cloister, Córdova Street is flanked by cells that served as living quarters for the nuns. These dwellings would house one or more nuns, along with a handful of servants, and ranged from austere to lavish depending on the wealth of the inhabitants. Ambling down Toledo Street leads you to the cafe, which serves up fresh-baked pastries and espresso drinks, and finally to the communal washing area where servants washed in mountain runoff channeled into huge earthenware jars.
Heading down Burgos Street towards the cathedral’s sparkling sillar tower, visitors may enter the musty darkness of the communal kitchen that was originally used as the church until the reformation of 1871. Just beyond, Zocodober Square (the name comes from the Arabic word for ‘barter’) served as a site where nuns gathered on Sundays to exchange their handicrafts such as soaps and baked goods. Continuing on, to the left you can enter the cell of the legendary Sor Ana, a nun renowned for her eerily accurate predictions about the future and the miracles she is said to have performed until her death in 1686.
Finally, the Great Cloister is bordered by the chapel on one side and the art gallery, which used to serve as a communal dormitory, on the other. This building takes on the shape of a cross. Murals along the walls depict scenes from the lives of Jesus and the Virgin Mary.
Museo Santury
Officially the Museo de la Universidad Católica de Santa María, this museum (20-0345; www.ucsm.edu.pe/santury; La Merced 110; admission S15; 9am-6pm Mon-Sat, 9am-3pm Sun) exhibits ‘Juanita, the ice princess’ – the frozen body of an Inca maiden sacrificed on the summit of Nevado Ampato, a snow-covered volcano to the northwest of Arequipa, more than 500 years ago (see boxed text, above). Multilingual tours (available in Spanish, English, French, German and Italian) consist of a video followed