Huaca Pucllana

Our last day in Lima and we walked from our hotel to the Kennedy Park, which is a lovely green oasis amongst the busy streets. However, it is probably better known for it's cat accommodation and the many friendly cats that live there.

If I was a cat I would definitely want to live in one of these luxury houses.

There was also a nice statue of a bull which is supposed to be a symbol of fertility, but I think that I have left that a bit late.

Then on to the Huaca Pucllana which is a huge pyramid shaped temple site a couple of kilometres from the coast.

It was built about 1,600 years ago but was abandoned after 500 years and then gradually covered with sand and soil and forgotten.

In the 1970s it was just thought of as a large hill and was used as a cyclo-cross venue, but then in 1981 plans were made for a road through the middle of it.

Totally unexpectedly when building work began they uncovered the site, and in the 43 years since archeologists have discovered an amazing place.

These aren't actors but are life sized models of workmen from that time. The pyramid is made of millions of adobe bricks and here the workers are mixing mud, straw, seashells and water to make bricks by hand that are left to dry.

The bricks are then stacked vertically with gaps between them and mud on top so that it looks like a library.

This method of building is fantastic as we are in an active earthquake area, and the vertical bricks and gaps between them cushion the blow of any movement.

I noticed this brick on one corner that hand a 1,600 year old handprint on it.

We carried on walking and headed up to the top of the pyramid. It is about 14 metres high nowadays, but originally they think it was about twice that height and would have had views to the sea.

Nowadays large buildings mean that the sea is hidden, but apparently the whole purpose of the temple was to worship the sea. It was built set back from the ocean because after an earthquake there is often a tsunami, and this location would be high enough to avoid being affected.

Very sadly the original builders seem to have practiced human sacrifices and the skeletons of many girls between the ages of 16 and 25 have been found beneath a courtyard.

Finally, it appears that the original builders of the pyramid disappeared and in about the year 900 another tribe used the site for their worship.

This is a reconstruction of a grave of a noble person. Their bodies were curled up and covered with materials until they resemble a barrel shape with a false head on the top to show that they are important.

There are lots of these sites on the pyramid and in all of them is also the body of a small child and usually two almost new born babies wrapped up in a bundle.

How very sad and strange, and tribe too left the site, probably because they were fleeing from the Incas.

Wow, that's a lot of facts for today. Later tonight we catch a flight to Madrid and then on to Heathrow before arriving back home.