Peru - Lonely Planet Publications [286]
There is a tiny on-site museum, and local guides are available to show you around.
Buses for La Esperanza go northwest along the Panamericana and can drop you off at La Huaca Arco Iris.
Huacas del Sol y de la Luna
The Temples of the Sun and the Moon (adult S11; 9am-4pm) are more than 700 years older than Chan Chan and are attributed to the Moche period. They are on the south bank of the Río Moche, about 10km southeast of Trujillo by a rough road. The entrance price includes a guide.
The Huaca del Sol is the largest single pre-Columbian structure in Peru, although about a third of it has been washed away. The structure was built with an estimated 140 million adobe bricks, many of them marked with symbols representing the workers who made them.
At one time the pyramid consisted of several different levels connected by steep flights of stairs, huge ramps and walls sloping at 77 degrees. The last 1500 years have wrought their inevitable damage, and today the pyramid looks like a giant pile of crude bricks partially covered with sand. The few graves within the structure suggest it may have been a huge ceremonial site. Certainly, its size alone makes the pyramid an awesome sight, and the views from the top are excellent.
Size isn’t everything, however. The smaller but more interesting Huaca de la Luna is about 500m away across the open desert. This structure is riddled with rooms that contain ceramics, precious metals and some of the beautiful polychrome friezes for which the Moche were famous. The huaca (tomb or grave) was built over six centuries to AD 600, with six succeeding generations expanding on it and completely covering the previous structure. Archaeologists are currently onion-skinning selected parts of the huaca and have discovered that there are friezes of stylized figures on every level, some of which have been perfectly preserved by the later levels built around them. It’s well worth a visit; you’ll see newly excavated friezes every year. Reproductions of some of the murals are displayed in the Museo de Arqueología in Trujillo (Click here).
As you leave, check out the souvenir stands, some of which sell pots made using the original molds found at the site. Also look around for one of the biringos, the native Peruvian hairless dogs that hang out here; their body temperature is higher than the normal dog, and they have traditionally been used as body warmers for people with arthritis.
Combis leave for the Huacas del Sol y de la Luna every half hour from Suárez in Trujillo. It’s also possible to take a taxi.
Complejo Arqueológico la Huaca el Brujo
This archaeological complex (admission negotiable; 9am-5pm) consists of the Huaca Prieta site, the recently excavated Moche site of Huaca Cao Viejo with its brilliant mural reliefs and Huaca el Brujo, which is only starting to be excavated. The complex is 60km from Trujillo on the coast and is hard to find without a guide. It’s technically not open to the public as there is little to see of the excavations so far, but tour agencies in Trujillo can arrange a visit to the area on request.
To get to the complex, take a bus from the Provincial Bus Terminal Interurbano in Trujillo to Chocope (S2, 1½ hours), then jump on a combi going toward the site (S2).
HUACA CAO VIEJO
The main section of Huaca Cao Viejo is a 27m truncated pyramid with some of the best friezes in the area. They show magnificently multicolored reliefs – much more color than you see at the huacas closer to Chiclayo – with stylized life-sized warriors, prisoners, priests and human sacrifices. There are also many burial sites from the Lambayeque culture, which followed the Moche. The people who live near this huaca insist that it has positive energy and ceremonies are occasionally performed here when someone needs to soak up a bit of this positive vibration.
HUACA PRIETA
Huaca Prieta has been one of the most intensively studied early Peruvian sites. However, for non-archaeologists, it’s generally more interesting to read about than to tour. Although it’s simply a prehistoric pile of refuse,