Huaca de la Luna and Chan Chan ruins
Yet more ruins seen as a day trip from Trujillo, but this time I signed up to a tour which covered all the major sites of interest in one day.}
First stop was Huaca de la Luna, which has some well preserved friezes and tombs from the Moche culture from approx 1000 years ago (see I was listening on this one). It seems that whenever there was a natural disaster or something important happened they built a new temple on top of, but larger than, the old one. Which is why they have found some of the designs painted on the walls in such good condition. One of the most interesting things about this site was the pride the Peruvians obviously took in the quality of the excavation work here.
After this it was on to Huaca de la Rainbow/Dragon, which was a temple or similar monument and had some interesting carvings (see photo).
Then it was Chan Chan, a vast city of the Chimu culture which followed the Mochu culture. They have only uncovered some of the site - the guide basically said they could not be bothered to do the rest! - but what they have found was interesting enough. I think that by the end of the day I had stopped listening and decided that I was all ruined-out. Without being able to recall the details of these cultures, I now have a general picture of the types of civilizations (their agriculture buildings and burial rituals) that preceeded the Incas.
