Huacas De La Luna Y Del Sol

Huacas De La Luna Y Del Sol

Since the Spectacled Bear adventure didn’t pan out, we decided to head out and explore some of the ruins of the area. Our first destination, located about 8 miles south of Huanchaco, was the site of two huacas, or temples in Quechua (more about this Incan language/culture to follow). We explored only the smaller and apparently more interesting of the two, the Huaca de la Luna, which was the ceremonial and spiritual center for the ancient Moche people who once lived in the region. Due to heavy rain damage, the larger Huaca Del Sol, the largest pre-columbian structure in Peru (built with over 140 million adobe bricks), is not open to visitors at this time. The two huacas are separated by a 500-meter expanse of land on which the Moche people used to live.

A bit about the Moche people

The Moche people, named after the river flowing into the ocean just south of Trujillo, were a pre-Incan civilization that lived in the northern coastal areas of Peru from about 200 BCE to 850 CE. While the Moche had no written language, much about their culture has been deciphered from their stunning ceramics work, which is considered the most artistically sensitive and technically developed of any found in Peru. By analyzing their pottery, archeologists know quite a bit about daily Moche life, including their social hierarchy, as follows from most powerful, honored, and obeyed, to least:
• Priests and warriors
• Artisans
• Farmers and fishermen
• Servants
• Slaves
• Beggars
Methinks, you can learn a lot about a culture by understanding what social roles existed and were most valued.

In addition to ceramics, the Moche culture produced sophisticated art works in metal, painting, textile, and architectural varieties. Several complex Moche pyramidal structures survive to this day, including the huacas.

The Huaca de la Luna

The Huaca de la Luna is one such pyramidal structure, impressive in its size, design, and surviving artistic works. What else is really cool about this Huaca? Like many places in Peru, excavations here are still underway, and much of the huaca has yet to be discovered. Visiting a site still in the midst of discovery is a cool experience.

Ania, Rachel, and I were graced with a lovely and knowledgeable tour guide who showed us around the complex, narrating the stories behind the sites. As we entered the complex, she explained that the Moche people chose this site because of its proximity to the Cerro Blanco, or white hill, located just above the huaca. They believed this hill was a spiritual site and governed architectural development of their complex in accordance with the hill’s size and shape.

The Decapitator

In an area closest to the Cerro Blanco, the high priests of the huaca hosted elaborate sacrificial ceremonies to the Decapitator, or the creator/maker God. As you may guess, beheading was a key feature of these sacrifices, as was skinning (ew). (The Decapitator was the favorite word of our tour guide, which was mildly amusing only because many of the tales sounded a bit like outlandish ghost stories). Young men were the lucky sacrificed, and it was an honor to be chosen as a human offering to the Decapitator. Something in this strange tradition reminds me of contemporary suicide bombers for some reason- this idea of dying in the name of your God. But I digress.

Do Overs and Animal Connections

One more interesting thing about the Huacas (okay two)—every 100 years for 600 years, the Moche people completely built over the existing huaca structure, giving the edifice its pyramidal shape. On each level of the onion-like structure, there are elaborate friezes centrally featuring the decapitator (okay, okay, my new favorite word too!) In addition to the Decaptitor, several animal images appear and reappear throughout the structure. Each of these animals represents a different natural or cultural phenomenon. For example, birds (such as pelicans) represented wind, snakes represented fertility, foxes represented power, spiders represented rain, catfish the sea, etc. I am finding from my incipient art history studies that animals have been a chief subject of art and worship since the beginning of time. While this may seem like an obvious observation, I find it interesting that humans have always been so closely connected to the animals around them.

Okay enough about the huacas, check out the pictures ☺