Peru travel | Travel Thru History

Caral, America’s Oldest City – part 2

by: Georges Fery

This is the 2nd part of a two-part article. Read part one here.

The Complex of the Amphitheater and its monumental circular sunken court is dated 2160BC. It is an important structure in the lower part (hurin) of the city, the counterpart to the Great Pyramid (hanan), but is not as commanding as the later. The walled complex is made of various components: a deck with a series of aligned cubicles; a large circular sunken plaza and a building with platforms that ascend sequentially. “On the east side of its perimeter is a circular altar and an elite dwelling. In the building were found several ceremonial hearths or Altars of the Sacred Fire, with their ventilation shafts built underneath. Buried in the circular sunken plaza of the Amphitheater were found 32 flutes finely carved from condor and pelican bones, as well as 37 bugles made of deer and llama bones, which point to the building’s ceremonial importance. They were “decorated with incised designs and painted with figures of local fauna and humans” (Shady, 1999b).

The main Altar of the Sacred Fire was found in an isolated area within the wall encircling the Amphitheatre complex. The religious ceremonies that took place there, as for most ancient agrarian societies, revolved around the powers of the sun, the moon, water, earth, celestial bodies, and their respective deities. This religious structure stems from the Kotosh religious tradition of the Late Archaic (4200BC) in the upper Andes, which influenced Caral religion through most of the millennium between 3000 and 2000 BC.

The priests were believed to draw their spiritual power from predicting cyclical natural events, such as the cycles of the sun the moon, and other heavenly bodies. For that reason, they were acknowledged as the anointed intercessors between people and the deities of nature. However, the priests lacked the scientific knowledge associated with their observations that would be acquired much later in time, so they merely acknowledged the repetition of those events that indeed appeared at predicated times. But what the priests could not predict were nature’s variables such as the intensities of the above-mentioned disrupters. At Caral as in most societies of the past, there was no separation between secular and creed for, as Shady notes, “religion was the nexus of cohesion and the ideology of the state acted as the instrument of domination of its government. Most of the activities carried out at Caral were, in some form or another, related to religious rituals and sacrifices” (1999a). The most important religious ceremonies may have taken place around the Altars of the Sacred Fire in the Great Pyramid, as well as in that of the Amphitheater. Less important ceremonies took place in other buildings. The shrine for the Sacred Fire is often made of a small circular platform with a fire pit in which small offerings were burned, such as those found at Kotosh.

The circular platform of the Sacred Fire was enclosed in a low quadrangular six-foot-high wall open space with access for only one person, most probably the high priest. A ventilation duct was built underneath the hearth that led the heat and smoke outside. In the shrine, the high priest called on natural forces and their deities to ascertain the timely arrival of natural events such as rains, winds, or other phenomena, and their consequences on crops. Planting and harvesting were daily concerns for most societies of the past associated, as they were, with the weather, rain specifically.

Delayed rains, or their diminished downpour, could translate into a bad or no crop at all, and the consequences: famine, the return of fear, and death. So the priests had to assure the city’s elite that the gods indeed helped in understanding nature’s hidden behavior.

Two other prominent architectural features at Caral are the large sunken circular courts built at the foot of the monumental staircases of the Great Pyramid and the Pyramid of the Amphitheater. They were used, as were the Maya rectilinear ball courts, for multi-function events at dedicated times. Religious ceremonies were likely prominent to celebrate major events such as spring and autumn equinoxes, the Austral solstices and the rising and setting of stars and planets mythologically associated with gods, deities, and seasonal celebrations, such as planting and harvesting. The discovery of finely carved flutes and bugles beneath the Pyramid of the Amphitheater’s sunken court, point tos the importance of musical instruments used during ceremonies and pageants. Remains of drums have not been found, so far, for their material may not have survived the test of time. Drums or percussion instruments, however, are recorded far back in time as the oldest device used by most cultures. Secular games may have taken place in the arena-like courts to celebrate social and sport events, an answer to ingrained human needs to compete in a controlled environment.

Through history, the universal use of games for secular or ritual purposes, underscore a commitment to maintain peace and balance between communal factions. Essential to ritual games, and to a certain extent secular games as well, was the need to keep in check latent antagonism within the same polity, as well as between polities.

In several buildings, archaeologists found human burials, mainly of children or young adults that are generally associated with specific rituals. As Shady points out, “the discovery of the body of a young man, deposited among stones that were used in an atrium in preparation for the construction of a new one, demonstrate this concept. The body was found above a layer of soil and stones, covered with other stones and the floor of the new atrium. It was nude and had no offerings except for the careful arrangement of the hair. Forensic analysis by Dr. Guido Lombardi indicates that it was a male of about twenty years of age, who was subjected to hard labor for most of his short life. He had received two forceful blows, one to the face and the other to the head (which was the cause of death); some of his fingers were placed in one of the niches of the temple” (2002). The remains of children were found underneath the floor of dwellings. This burial practice, as found in later cultures, was related to the belief that such offerings would contribute to the long life of the building.

Also found in residences were Quipus, the knotted strings made of camelid fibers such as llama or alpaca wool. Quipus were used, from the Late Archaic or probably earlier, as recording and communication devices arranged on a base ten positional system. The ones identified at Caral are among the oldest found in Peru. Furthermore, small low fired ceramic figurines – on average: five high by two inches wide – were found in secular and religious contexts. Their similarity with those of the San Pedro’s phase of the Valdivia culture of Ecuador (2700 BC), is striking.

The small Caral figurines are low fired with red and gray colors applied. The arms of the figurines, like those at Valdivia, are usually short and bent toward the chest or placed under the chin. In the Americas, diffusion of ceramics took place over a long span of time and across extensive geographical areas through trade, and some found their replicas at Caral.

The floor plans of residential houses vary according to their proximity to a pyramid complex, a direct reflection of the status of their residents. Their architecture is similar in both upper and lower Caral and, as for collective structures, are built of rocks set with mud. The largest household complex in Caral is found in Sector.A, in the upper half of the city (hanan). The quadrangular houses are built with a main entrance at the front and a door at the back, the later perhaps used for the kitchen or other services. Their sizes vary from 530 to 860 square feet, and they had interconnected rooms, also an indication of the status of a household. In several rooms small platforms and benches (beds?) were found. The walls and floors were covered with white, beige, or light-grey colored plasters, while those with red and yellow paints may indicate that they were the homes of the Caral elite” (Shady, 1997).

The central point still argued today about the diffusion of Peruvian cultures is whether it initiate from the coast, with its bountiful marine resources, or from the Andes Mountains to the Pacific Coast. In the view of archeologists Jonathan Haas and Winifred Creamer, “a complex society arose in Peru, thanks to irrigation agriculture, the same way it did in the world’s five other “pristine” civilizations, Mesopotamia, ca. 3500 BC, Egypt, ca. 3000 BC, India, ca. 2600 BC, China, 1900 BC and Mexico, ca.1200 BC (2005). Historian Karl Wittfogel points out that “irrigation was the catalyst that transformed tribal societies into city-states; for it required forced labor, central planning, a managerial elite, and provided the excess food necessary to support workers and administrators.” (1957). At Caral, the state government was sustained by dynamic diversified crops and a fishing economy. “Its sphere of domination and control included the populations of the Supe, Pativilca and Fortaleza valleys.

However, its connections and prestige extended across the entire north-central Peruvian region” (Shady, 2005). Social groups shared water through five ecological zones. The rivers begin in the high Andean Altiplano and flow through the mountain’s piedmont and, ultimately, to the coastal plains and the Pacific Ocean, a topography that was at the core of Caral’s survival for over a thousand years.

Haas and Creamer raise a pertinent point about “how ancient South Americans made the leap from subsistence fishing to urban sophistication.” Their main argument: “If the exploitation of marine resources is the reason for cultural complexity, why don’t you get a string of these big, complex societies up and down the Pacific coast? You don’t.” Haas maintains that the Late Preceramic sites of Aspero and Banduria, “grew as complex as they did because they could trade with inland settlements that had been revolutionized by irrigation agriculture.”

It takes a complex society to undertake big public construction projects, and the consensus is that complexity sprang from mastering agriculture. Hunter-gatherers had neither the means nor the need to create social hierarchies. That process (which entailed the division of labor and the emergence of a managerial caste), got under way only after humans settled down to farm” (2005). However, Aspero at the mouth of the Supe River, may still reveal surprises since recent radiocarbon dating showed that the village, with its two large platforms and circular sunken courts, had flourished as early as 3033BC.

Caral and its neighboring communities in the Pativilca and Fortaleza valleys were abandoned between 1800 and 1600BC. Why? We are not sure, but archaeological and geological data point to the relentless onslaught of disrupters and their cumulative effects, which priests could not foresee. Geological data uncovered that an earthquake estimated at 7.2 on the Richter scale took place in about 1820BC and destroyed much of Caral and Aspero (Sandweiss et all., 2009). This major earthquake was most probably followed by successive tremors of various intensity over the following weeks and months and contributed to more unstable rock and mud slides into the valleys.

The damages may have been worsened by an El Niño event that came concurrently or followed closely the earthquake and its aftershocks. Remains of torrential rains and consecutive gravel and dirt slides from the surrounding hills found by geologists are testimonies to the destruction of agriculture, that clogged rivers and wells in the valleys. The mouth of the Supe River was heavily choked by sediments that, together with storms, gale force winds and ocean current shifts over months, built up a sand belt along the coast that, is to this is day, is referred to as the “Middle World.”

This situation exacerbated an already unstable food supply, for the shift in ocean temperatures with La Niña pushed schools of fish farther and deeper offshore. Worsening an already catastrophic situation were climate shifts and sands blown inland from the coast to agricultural fields in the valleys, further destroyed cultures and obstructed canals already damaged by rock and mud slides.

Furthermore, Caral’s neighbors on its north and south were likewise severely impacted by these disastrous events. Food shortage worsened to such an extent that, together with the loss of cotton, produce and fishing, the economy collapsed. The pleas and tears of Caral’s priests could not prevent nor help in such a tragic situation, and Caralinos had no alternative but to flee and seek refuge in less afflicted communities.

The powers of nature were harsh on Caral and, so it seems, were its gods and deities. Garcia-Acosta points out that disasters are “triggers and revealers that have been important catalysts of change for much of human history.” As people begin to rebuild their lives in the wake of calamity, “one of their pressing concerns is for closure, for people need to understand why things happened in order to seek ways to make sure it does not happen again” (2002). Under severe conditions, new religious ideas and new leaders often emerge that take cultures in new directions.

Further Reading:
Ruth Shady Solis, 2001 – The Oldest City in the New World
Jennings, J., 2008 – Catastrophe, Revitalization and Religious Change on the Prehispanic North Coast of Peru
Ruth Shady and Carlos Leyva, 2003 – La Ciudad Sagrado de Caral-Supe
Roxana Hernandez Garcia, 2015 – Caral: 5000 Años de Identidad
Jesús Sánchez Jaén, 2008 – Caral, la Cultura de las Plazas Circulares
Ruth Shady Solis, J. Haas, and W. Creamer, 2001 – Dating Caral, a Preceramic in the Supe Valley on the Central Coast of Peru (Science, 292).
Haas and M. Piscitelli, 2004 – The Rise of Andean Pre-Inca Civilizations
Ruth Shady Solis, 2006 – La Civilización Caral: Sistema Social y Manejo del Territorio y sus Recursos; sus Transcendancia en el Proceso Cultural
Eva Jobbova, Ch. Elmke & A. Bevan, 2018 – Ritual Responses to Drought: An Examination of Ritual Expressions
Arthur D. Faram, 2010 – A Geographic Study of the Ancient Caral, Peru

About the author:
Freelance writer, researcher and photographer, Georges Fery (georgefery.com) addresses topics, from history, culture, and beliefs to daily living of ancient and today’s communities of Mesoamerica and South America. His articles are published online at travelthruhistory.com, ancient-origins.net and popular-archaeology.com, in the quarterly magazine Ancient American (ancientamerican.com), as well as in the U.K. at mexicolore.co.uk. The author is a fellow of the Institute of Maya Studies instituteofmayastudies.org Miami, FL and The Royal Geographical Society, London, U.K. rgs.org. As well as member in good standing of the Maya Exploration Center, Austin, TX mayaexploration.org, the Archaeological Institute of America, Boston, MA archaeological.org, the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC. americanindian.si.edu, and the NFAA – Non-Fiction Authors Association nonfictionauthrosassociation.com.
Contact: Georges Fery – 5200 Keller Springs Road, Apt. 1511, Dallas, Texas 75248, (786) 501 9692 –gfery.43@gmail.com and www.georgefery.com

Photo Credits:

7 – The Great Pyramid and the Supe Valley courtesy of cordilleraviajes.com
8 – El Altar del Fuego Sagrado: Se.Xauxa, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
9 – Amphitheatre and sunken court courtesy of qosqoexpeditions.com
10 – Condor and Pelican Bone Flutes courtesy of noticiasdelaciencia.org
11 – Caral, Ceramic Figurines courtesy of enperublog.com
12 – Pyramids and Residences courtesy of incatrail.com
13 – Banduria, the Middle World © georgefery.com

Peru: The Totora Reed Raft

by George Fery

Traveling on the dry wind-swept northern coast of Peru, beside spectacular landscape, one finds interesting ways of how people make a living. That’s how a strange little raft made of reeds used by fishermen in Huanchaco, raised both eyebrows and curiosity. The large town is located eight miles north of Trujillo and 304 miles from the capital Lima, on the Pan American highway.

What a curious contraption, unlike anything one might expect for the task. And what do you say they call it? Caballito de Totora; the name translates as “Little Horse of Totora.” It seems that we have both an unusual contraption and a contradiction, because the horse, caballo or caballito for little horse in Spanish, did not exist before the arrival of the Europeans in the Americas.

How was it called in the past we don’t know, but their use is recorded over thousands of years, from ceramics of the great Moche and Chimu, and other cultures centuries before, whose fishermen adopted the very same reed raft to harvest fish. Representation of the raft in ceramics and carved in adobe walls at Tucume, a pre-Columbian site, are virtually identical to the ones used today. The nodules shown below the raft, represent waves.

Reed rafts are among the oldest river and coastal modes of transport. Remains were found on the Failaka Island in Kuwait, dated 7,000 years ago. In Egypt, rafts were built of papyrus reeds (cyperus papyrus), a close family to the Huanchaco reeds, that were widely cultivated on the Nile’s banks and its Delta, date back to 4000BC. Reeds used for raft or boat building are found in the archaeological record throughout the world.

In the Americas, the material used to build rafts in the past and today, is the totora reed, a plant that grows in swamps along the northern coast of Peru, such as at the Huanchaco ecological reserve in the sand dunes north of town, locally called Humedades de Huanchaco.

The totora plant scientific name is Schoenoplectus californicus subsp. tatora; a mouthful isn’t? The plant is found in South America, on the shores of Lake Titicaca at 12,707 feet in Bolivia, as well as on the middle coast of Peru and, of all places, on Easter Island in the Pacific. How did it find its way there so far from south America? Birds may be the culprits; they eat seeds at one place and drop them at another.

The plant can reach a height of 20 feet, but is more commonly 13-15 feet high, that’s about the average length of a caballito de totora, the raft local name.

It is made of two bundles of totora dry reeds tied up together with double loop ropes. Today pieces of polystyrene are built into each of the twin bundles for added buoyancy, and nylon rope replace totora vines to tie up the bundles. It takes but a few hours to make a caballito, and the material used in their fabrication can rapidly and economically be replaced.

The relatively light weight of the raft at about 35+ pounds, allows it to be carried on a man’s shoulder. There is an argument about the caballito: is it a boat or a raft?

The distinction between the two is that the boat is usually waterproofed with some sort of tar, while the raft is not; so, our caballito is a raft! Could it perhaps be considered a precursor to today’s surf and paddle board?, Ooops, here is another argument.

The caballito de totora is made to get past the surf and waves in the ocean, not ride them. The raft rides the swells of the Pacific beautifully thanks to its curved pointed upward bow, in the shape of an elephant tusk. Its pre-Columbian design helps cut through the surf and reach deeper water where bigger fish are found.

A caballito rider does not go into the raft because there is no “into.” They typically ride seated or kneeling in the rectangular rear stern or straddling the raft with their legs dangling overboard. Out to sea they will avoid having their feet out, since sea lions in the area may be tempted.

When they get a large catch, they will store the fish in plastic bags with the nets, on the flat stern while riding on the body of the caballito. For propulsion, the rider carries a bamboo stalk about 8 to 9ft long split in half over its length, 7-9 inches wide, that’s the paddle; it also helps the rider keep lateral balance on the waves.

Fishermen cannot go far off the coast given the limitation of their craft. They cast their nets, between two ore more caballitos, about two to four miles off shore. The nets are weighted and held by floats. After setting the nets they go their separate ways with each man dropping traps for lobster.

On a very good day the catch may be up to 80+ pounds, but more often than not the catch does not exceed about 25-35 pounds. Beside two or three lobsters perhaps, the mix of fish may include sardines, mullet, sea bass, calamari and others. The weight of the catch is limited by the craft structure in addition to the rider’s weight.

The waters teem with fish and fishermen aim for medium to large fish that sell quickly on arrival to hotels and restaurants. Commercial and private buyers are waiting on the beach…sometimes with a pod of pelicans in the shallows, since who knows what can drop off the raft?

What is not sold on the beach will be loaded in a hand cart for sale to small restaurants in town. It is a hard way to make a living and is seen as an “old man” occupation by the younger generation.

Tip: lunch on the beach front because the fish of your ceviche surely came right out of a caballito that very same day.

Speaking of ceviche, Peru’s national dish must not to be confused with others that brag about the dish name’s ownership; after all, everyone’s entitled to an opinion. There are many ways to prepare ceviche; type of fish (best is sea bass); other ingredients and spices may vary from one place to another along the coast. But you’ll want to start with a good Pisco Sour, unavoidable in this great country where the drink was born, and what a great drink it is, while waiting overwhelmed by the aroma of delightful food.

Back to our strange contraption. Not so long ago the rafts were seen all along the coast, now they are only found in few places among which is Huanchaco, believed to be the most traditional place, with about 25-30 full time fishermen.

As a rule, a fisherman has two or more caballitos because the reeds soak up water and after a couple of weeks, one needs to stay on shore to dry, propped up against wooden cross bars on the beach, while the other goes to sea.

Are the caballitos fading into the sunset? In August 2014 an article in the Huanchaco Journal written by William Neuman and Andrea Zarate summed up the situation: yes. There are a number of factors among which is a long breakwater built for port traffic that altered the currents in the bay and brought significant environmental degradation that damaged the totora reed tracts and narrowed the beach. There were over 200 tracts in 2011, there are less than 120 today. As major as it sounds, it’s still a minor factor.

The major factor is the arrival a few years back of affordable fiberglass and aluminum boats that are safer, can go farther and carry more fish; the caballitos cannot compete. Fishermen today get a significant part of their income giving rides on their caballito to a steady stream of tourists. Younger men will double as surf instructors on theirs.

Alas, the young generation can get a better financial return for their labor working in the hospitality or industrial fishing industries, among other occupation. It seems that the caballitos will, in a not so distant future, be relegated to entertainment for tourists or to museums. Inexorably, their practical use is fading with each sunset.

If You Go:

Planning a Peru trip

Reed boat on Wikipedia

About the author:

Freelance writer, researcher, and photographer, Georges Fery (georgefery.com) addresses topics, from history, culture, and beliefs to daily living of ancient and today’s indigenous communities of the Americas. His articles are published online in the U.S. at travelthruhistory.com, popular-archaeology.com, and ancient-origins.net, as well as in the quarterly magazine Ancient American (ancientamerican.com). In the U.K. his articles are found in mexicolore.co.uk.

The author is a fellow of the Institute of Maya Studies instituteofmayastudies.org Miami, FL, and The Royal Geographical Society, London, U.K. rgs.org. As well as a member in good standing of the Maya Exploration Center, Austin, TX mayaexploration.org, the Archaeological Institute of America, Boston, MA archaeological.org, NFAA-Non Fiction Authors Association nonfictionauthrosassociation.com, and the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC. americanindian.si.edu.

Photographs:

Catch in Hand – ©Sergi Reboredo / alamy.com
The Caballito – ©Willem Proos / willemproos@xs4all.nl
Tucume – ©georgefery.com
Polystyrene – ©J. Ashley Nixon / ashleynixon.com
Drying Up – ©georgefery.com

Caral, Peru: Cradle of Civilization in the Americas

by Troy Herrick

As we passed along a dirt road that would put a 4-wheel drive to shame, I conjured up an image of Egypt and the Nile in my mind’s eye to contrast with my Peruvian surroundings. This picture abruptly evaporated when the taxi hit a large bump. Outside the window, the nearby Supe River, straddled by lush fields of corn and onions, meandered over a dry desert terrace like a giant ribbon adorning surprise package. For over four millennia, this “surprise package” contained a hidden secret – the lost city of Caral. First discovered in 1948, the site, hidden under a sea of sand dunes, was not excavated until 1994 because it appeared to lack many of the typical artifacts usually found in this part of the world.

Caral, an abandoned city eroded by time and windswept sand, holds twenty-five structures including six pyramids that are as old as the Step Pyramid in Egypt. More remarkably, this early civilization developed in complete isolation without the use of pottery, metalwork or writing, unlike its contemporaries in the ancient Near East.

The dust of the ages quickly coats your shoes between the parking lot and the ticket booth where you meet your archeologist-guide. Julio Sandoval, an archeologist who had been digging at Caral for the last seven years, indicated that this is still an active dig site and that only about 40% (66 hectares) has been excavated to date. This city, with a population of approximately 3000 at its zenith, was divided into an upper section where all of the pyramids and residences surround a central plaza and a lower section which is organized along one street.

Julio informed us that we are not permitted to climb any of the pyramids and directed Diane and me along sandy pathways defined by small rocks to the Gallery Pyramid. The nine-tiered Gallery Pyramid, the third tallest at 18.59 meters, is named for the gallery decorated with niches at its summit. Parts of this pyramid date back to the earlier period of Caral when the retaining walls forming each layer of the pyramid were constructed from large tree trunks plastered with wattle and daub.

Among the artifacts discovered in the Gallery Pyramid was “quipu”. Quipu is knotted cotton string that served as a record keeping system. Caral’s knot system was relatively simplistic but the Incas would develop a more complex one over three millennia later. Perhaps the Caral system was a precursor to that of the Incas?

Just across the plaza, the Huanca Pyramid, named for the nearby 2.15 meter high huanca stone whose edges are oriented to the cardinal directions, holds three rooms atop its 12.8 meter summit. These rooms may have been used for astronomical and ceremonial purposes.

The six platforms of the Huanca Pyramid consist of stone retaining walls with rock filler set inside. Stone walls are characteristic of the later period of Caral. The filler was packaged in “shicra” bags (sacks made from woven weeds). These rock-filled sacks served to stabilize the stone walls during an earthquake. Workers would fill the sacks with stones and carry them on their shoulders to the construction site from quarries over a kilometer away. The arid climate has preserved the shicra fibers down to the present day, making then a ready source for radiocarbon dating studies. The reeds and therefore the city date to 2627 BCE.

En route to our next destination, the Greater Pyramid, I fought back a sneeze as a sudden gust of wind raised a cloud of dust. Seen through the haze, the Greater Pyramid is the largest structure on site covering approximately four football fields. From a height of 19.27 meters (seven platforms), city officials oversaw all of the activities within the city.

Those who climbed the pyramid first had to pass through a sunken circular plaza at the base. This circular plaza resembles a wading pool even though there is nothing to suggest that water was ever present inside.

Not everyone who climbed the pyramid descended after. Julio indicated that the mummy of a young man approximately 25 years of age was discovered amongst the construction fill in the ceremonial room at the summit. Most notable was that no fingers were attached to the desiccated corpse. These were found in nearby niches where they had been individually buried. According to Julio, all of the pyramids at Caral were used for religious and ceremonial purposes rather than tombs so this mummy was likely a sacrifice. Given the city’s isolation and that no weapons of war have ever been on site, this victim does not appear to be a prisoner-of-war.

After making quick stops at the Lesser Pyramid, Quarry Pyramid and Central pyramid, we returned to the lower section of the city to visit the Temple of the Amphitheater. Julio directed us to a bank of twelve cubicles lining the entry platform that once held the remains of burnt food offerings.

The Temple of the Amphitheater features a sunken circular plaza with tiered seating. Constructed of cut stone, this plaza was a place of animal sacrifice to Pachamama, the Andean goddess of mother earth. My imagination stretched across the sands of time to a group of dancing musicians as Julio mentioned that 32 condor and pelican bone flutes and 37 deer and llama bone horns were uncovered here.

Deeper inside the temple complex is the Altar of the Sacred Fire. This cramped round space houses an altar with a two-level fireplace; an air duct runs beneath. This room was likely used for mysterious ceremonies that the general public was not privy.

Caral was continuously upgraded for almost 600 years. Unlike our modern civilization, residents did not destroy their older buildings. Instead these were remodeled using additional earth and stone. Reconstruction was already well underway even as the Great Pyramid at Giza was being built.

Eventually the end came for the city, possibly because of drought. Around 2100 BCE, Caral was abandoned to history and the inhabitants departed for more fertile areas of country and perhaps founded other civilizations as they went.

If You Go:

Caral is approximately 200 kilometers north of Lima.
Diane and I visited Caral with Pivian Tours.
Alternatively you can travel by bus from Lima to Huacho and then hire a taxi to bring you to Caral. The site is isolated so you will have to ask the taxi to wait until you are finished your tour.
Bring suntan lotion, a wide brimmed hat, comfortable shoes and a bottle of water.
Visit my Peru webpage at www.plan-a-dream-trip.com/peru.html

Photographs:
All photos are by Diane Gagnon. A freelance photographer, Diane has traveled extensively in North America, the Caribbean, Europe and parts of South America. Her photographs have accompanied Troy Herrick’s articles in Live Life Travel, Offbeat Travel and Travel Thru History Magazines.
1. Gallery Pyramid
2. Archeologists at Work
3. The La Huanca Stone
4. Pyramid Of La Huanca
5. Alcoves at the Temple of the Amphitheater
6. Amphitheater at the Temple of the Amphitheater

Pisac in Peru’s Sacred Valley

by Jason Burke

From the historic Inca city of Cuzco, my wife, Alexa, and I took a collectivo taxi (a mini van filled with local Peruvians) over the mountains surrounding Cuzco down into the “Sacred Valley” to the village of Pisac. The town is situated in the bottom of the valley created by the Urubamba River. The Sacred Valley is lined with massive mountains on either side of the river, with flat farmland in the bottom of the valley. The Urubamba River originates in the altiplano south of the Cuzco area, and eventually flows into the Amazon River, travelling through the arid Sacred Valley and the downstream ruins of the more famous Inca site of Machu Picchu.

The town of Pisac (elevation about 9,500 ft) has a central market that is frequently visited by tour buses on their way to the ruins on the hills above Pisac. Most tours stop at the craft market and then head up to the ruins for the morning, and then move on down the Sacred Valley to other archaeological sites. From the town of Pisac, you can view the ancient Inca terraces far up on the steep hillsides. Looking up the steep slopes from Pisac, it is hard to imagine walking up the steep slopes of the mountains to labor making stone terraces and farm these remote and high fields, but evidently the Inca did it. In the ancient construction of the agricultural terraces included both normal stairs and stones inserted into the walls to allow them to move up through the terraces as they tended their crops on the high slopes.

We came to Pisac to stay for a few days and hike all the way up to the ruins, for our own Inca trail experience. The perched towers of the ruins are visible from town, way, way above the central market plaza, on the top of the towering mountains.

The next morning after arriving in town, finding a place to stay and getting some food for the hike, we set out up the stairs leading from town to the first set of terraces. We headed through the market stalls selling colorful alpaca wool shawls, blankets and hats, stopping to barter and eventually buy some woolen hats to ward off the chill of the thin mountain air. Leaving the market by a small back street passing between mud wall compounds and heading towards the steep slopes at the edge of town, we walked over the cobblestones of a path which led up towards the first ascent into the terraces above the village.

We climbed slowly up the smooth old stone stairs and terraces, gaining elevation and rewarding views of the valley below. As we steadily climbed the smooth stones, we reflected on the hard work it took to form the stones and fit them together to create the stone stairs we now climbed. The stairs lead up through a series of terraces created by more formed and stacked stones. For us, it was enough physical work to climb the stairs, but the Inca stone workers who built the terraces and trails we hiked on had not only walked these same trails, but then spent theirs days laboring to do the stone work and farm the terraces we were passing through.

Fortunately, we had been at high elevations for over a week to allow our bodies enough time to adjust to the elevation and thin mountain air, so the climb did not cause any altitude sickness. As we steadily climbed the hill, breathing heavily as we strained to extract oxygen from the cool and crisp morning air, we climbed a long series of stairs up between two small guard towers. We continued through the high farm terraces and into the ruins of small settlement on the steep slopes where the buildings had been laid out to form the shape of a bird when viewed from above. Then we climbed up to the ceremonial center of Intihuatana within the ruins.

Intihuatana (“hitching post of the sun”) was an important ceremonial site and solar observatory that has very fine rectangular stone work and forms a temple around a large rock that has been shaped by Incan solar observers to determine the time of the winter and summer solstices, important for the timing of agricultural work for their society. There is a central stone that was very important to the Incan priests, with a complex drainage system that captured the runoff from the stone and stored it in a basin that discharged to a series of channels and fountains below the hilltop site.

From the ceremonial center, we moved up through an Inca tunnel carved into the rocky mountain top, along a defensive wall beneath military barracks (where they guarded the main entrance) and into a saddle that had sacred baths and views of cliff sides with burial caves in them. Since the caves have been hit by grave robbers, tourists are not allowed into that area. We finished by going to the tour bus drop off area to get a some fresh squeezed orange juice before heading back down into town. In addition to the sense of accomplishment from having climbed all the way up (11,200 feet above see level) from town (over 1,700 feet of elevation gain) we got to visit the site in the opposite direction as the flow of the tour groups, and we could not help but feel a little smug as tourists huffed and puffed their way back to the bus parking area after their short tour, loudly complaining about the short hike.

Returning down the ancient trail to the valley below, we passed a local boy whom we had seen on the way up as he nimbly passed us while we labored our way up the slope. However, now he was dressed in traditional Inca clothing over his sweet pants and athletic shirt, which he had taken from his backpack. In his Inca costume, he was now perched up on a rock below some ruins, was playing a wooden flute in the hope of earning a few tips from tourists at the ruins. The sound of the wooden flute floated through the air as we headed down from the mountain-top stronghold, through the agricultural terraces and into the valley below.

When we made it back down to town, we feasted on lomo saltodo (beef cooked with onions, tomatoes, seasoning and served with fries and/or rice). Then we moved to another restaurant on the central plaza of Pisac for views of the mountains we had just climbed and tried some alpaca skewers and chocolate cheesecake, just to be sure we were full after our long and rewarding climb.

Pisac Sacred temple tour

If You Go:

Map and other information: www.maplandia.com
Travel guide: www.vivatravelguides.com
Fullscreen Virtual Tour: www.destination360.com

About the author:
Jason Burke works as a city planner and used the housing market crash as an opportunity to take a year off to pursue his passion for travel. Along with his wife Alexa, he spent 13 months travelling around the world. The blog of their entire trip can be found at: fadedbackpacks.wordpress.com

All photos are by Jason Burke.

Cusco, Peru: City With a Storied Past

by Troy Herrick

According to Andean Mythology, Inti the Sun God ordered Manco Qhapac to find “the navel of the earth” (qosco). At the navel, a golden rod could be plunged into the ground until it disappeared. Manco located such a spot – a perfectly flat valley surrounded on all sides by high mountains. He then established Cusco (also spelled Cuzco) with himself as its first emperor. This mythical city would one day become the capital of the mighty Inca Empire (Tawantinsuyu) before falling to Spanish invaders almost four centuries after its legendary founding.

Five centuries after the Spanish conquest, visitors to Cusco won’t have to peel back the successive layers of history. These are apparent within the colonial buildings incorporated into the stone walls, battlements and temples originally constructed by the “Children of the Sun”.

The very Spanish-looking Plaza de Armas was once surrounded by Inca palaces but now it is a holy square. The Cathedral, flanked by two lesser churches, is the focal point. The conquerors disassembled the Palace of Viracocha and re-used its gray stone blocks in the Cathedral as walls and supporting columns.

The fortress-like front doors suggest that the Cathedral was also used for less holy activities related to defense. Inside, the high altar incorporates 400 kilograms of silver extracted from mines at Potosi in present day Bolivia. To the right of the altar, a side chapel holds a statue of Jesus named “the Lord of the Earthquakes”. He protects Cusco residents from tremors. The statue, originally carved from a light-colored wood, gradually turned brown with exposure to candle smoke. Our guide, Adriel Vilcas, indicated that this Jesus has a large and varied wardrobe. Every day he is dressed in a different set of clothes, including the uniform of a local soccer team.

The cathedral also contains over 400 colonial paintings. The most interesting is “The Last Supper” where the main course is guinea pig and a local corn beer called chicha. At the bottom of the painting, to the right of center, Conquistador Francisco Pizarro sits as Judas.

Exit the Cathedral for the nearby Monastery of Santa Carolina. This convent was constructed on the ruins of “the Acllawasi” – the House of the Chosen Women. Young girls, selected from the best born and most beautiful, were dedicated to “the Cult of the Sun”. Novices were taught special skills like weaving, cooking and preparing the sacred chicha by matrons. At the age of sixteen, some of these sacred virgins even became royal consorts. Those not selected remained as matrons.

The Spanish replaced “the Chosen Women” with “the Brides of Christ”. As in colonial times, nuns occupy the monastery today. Their lives and duties, presented through a series of displays, included mending liturgical vestments, worship and penance.

Novice nuns were trained at the monastery until 1960. Their bedrooms were filled with personal furnishings that they were expected to provide for themselves as a condition of entry into the Order. Two-foot long cords were hung near their personal crucifixes suggesting that self-flagellation was fashionable at one time.

Two blocks from the monastery, you find the ruins of the only remaining Inca palace in Cusco. At the entrance, get a feel for the former palace by studying the scale model. Moving along you find remnants of stone walls, all no more than 3-4 feet high. At the time of my visit, four llama-like picunas grazed on the grassy carpets found within the once-royal rooms. The picunas were tourist-shy and quickly vacated any room that we entered. One room housed two rock-lined water wells each 5 feet deep and 4.5 feet in diameter. Visitors also discover a drainage channel at the former doorway.

Beyond the palace is Qoricancha (also spelled Coricancha) – the former “Temple of the Sun”. During Inca times, the interior walls of this temple were covered in ornamental gold and silver panels. The Spanish, likely believing they had finally found El Dorado, stripped the walls bare and eventually donated the naked structure to the Dominicans. This religious order carefully retrofitted the Convent of Santo Domingo inside the temple during the 17th century.

More recently, part of the cloister crumbled during an earthquake thereby exposing four of the original Inca chambers within Qoricancha. The cyclopean walls are striking because of the carefully interlocking stonework. The Incas did not use mortar so as to provide the walls with greater flexibility during an earthquake. This design appears to have functioned very well over time but it was not fool-proof. Past tremors have misaligned a number of stones situated in the upper section of one room.

The “Temple of the Star” is the largest room at Qoricancha. During the Inca period, a solid gold disc was positioned to reflect the sun’s rays through a niche directly onto the altar at the summer solstice (December 21st). The conquistadors destroyed the altar but never found the sun disc. Presumably this disc has remained hidden to the present day.

Before leaving Qoricancha, look for the white statue of Christ on the hill to the east of Cusco. Your next destination, Sacsaywaman (also spelled Sacsayhuaman), is located near this statue. This fortress was the site of the Inca’s last stand against the Spanish. Arriving on site, you find that Sacsaywaman actually consists of two individual 3-tiered structures separated by a flat grassy field. Viewed from the air, the two halves form the head of a puma. The zigzag walls, opposing each other over a length of 400 meters, are the puma’s teeth. The puma’s body was defined by the boundaries of pre-Hispanic Cusco.

Much of the original cyclopean walls were dismantled over an eight-year period by the Spanish, who then moved the stone blocks to the city below. According to Adriel, the largest block on site, the mother stone, is approximately 6 meters high and weighs between 125-160 tons. Amazingly these massive rocks were transported from quarries over 15 kilometers away, without the use of pack animals and the wheel. Walking around the fortress, I was amazed at how carefully the massive stone blocks were fit together. I couldn’t even pass a sheet of paper between them.

Hop a bus or taxi for the short trip down the road to the entrance to Tambo Machay. Arriving at the gate, you still have a ten-minute walk uphill to the site. Take it slow as you quickly become short of breath with exertion at high altitudes.

Adriel, who indicated that he was once a shaman, explained that Inca shamans performed soul-cleansing ceremonies at Tambo Machay. A single stream of crystal clear water cascades from an orifice at the base of the second of three tiers and then divides to form segregated male and female showers for ritual bathing. The duality of nature seems to be emphasized at this Inca site, dating to 1435 CE.

Returning to Cusco, tour the Inca Museum inside the ornate 16th century colonial mansion of a retired Spanish Admiral. Exhibits outline the various Inca and Pre-Inca cultures in the area through ceremonial pottery, textiles, goldsmithing and a farming diorama. A reproduction of a royal tomb houses six mummies permanently fixed in the fetal position. Also of note is a sign stating that the Inca nobility adopted some aspects of Spanish culture – ostentation and pomp.

Exiting the museum you have time to contemplate how much of the ancient Inca civilization surrounds you within the city, if you know where to look. You also realize that the modern-day descendants of the Incas are justifiably proud of the accomplishments of their ancestors; and they still harbor a deep-seeded grudge toward the conquering Spanish.

Cusco Bus Tour With Shamanic Ritual

If You Go:

Diane and I enjoyed a city tour of Cusco which included visits to the Cathedral, Coricancha, Sacsaywaman, Tambo Machay and several lesser Inca sites. The tour company provided us with a Boleto Turistico.

This tourist ticket includes admission to Sacsaywaman, Tambo Machay and a number of other sites in and around Cusco. The tour also included separate admission tickets to both the Cathedral and Qoricancha.

The City tours do not include the Monastery of Santa Catalina, the Inca Palace and the Inca Museum. We visited these sites independently and purchased admission tickets are required. Details are provided below.

City tours can be booked in advance over the internet and can be combined with visits to Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley. The tours can also be booked through travel agencies in Cusco. Just ask about recommended tour companies at your hotel.

Alternatively you can visit all of the sites without a tour group. Most of the major sites are a short walk on flat ground from the Plaza de Armas. Sacsaywaman and Tambo Machay are uphill from Cusco, making a taxi your best mode of transportation.

You will require the Boleto Turistico. The price was 170 Sols at the time of our visit. Admission to Sacsaywaman and Tambo Machay are only by Boleto Turistico.
Admission to the Cathedral was 25 Sols at the time of our visit.

The Inca Museum is located at the corner of Tucaman and Ataud, just up the hill from the Cathedral. Admission was 10 Sols at the time of our visit.

The Monastery of Santa Catalina is located at 190 Santa Catalina, near the intersection with Arequipa Street. Admission was 8 Sols at the time of our visit.

The Inca Palace is located on Av Maruri across the street from the Scotiabank. Admission was free at the time of our visit.

Qoricancha is located at the Plazoleta Santo Domingo, one block beyond the Inca Palace. Admission was 10 Sols at the time of our visit.

Bring water and sunscreen when you travel around the city. Also bring a warm coat as sites like Sacsaywaman and Tambo Machay are often windy and chilly.

Visitors to Cusco should protect themselves from altitude sickness. You can find out more about altitude sickness at: www.plan-a-dream-trip.com

About the author:
Troy Herrick, a freelance travel writer, has traveled extensively in North America, the Caribbean, Europe and parts of South America. His articles have appeared in Live Life Travel, International Living, Offbeat Travel and Travels Thru History Magazines. He also penned the travel planning e-book entitled ”Turn Your Dream Vacation into Reality: A Game Plan for Seeing the World the Way You Want to See It” – www.thebudgettravelstore.com/page/76972202 based on his own travel experiences over the years. Plan your vacation at his ”Budget Travel Store” www.thebudgettravelstore.com and his ”PlanADreamTrip.com” www.plan-a-dream-trip.com sites.

Photographs:
All photos by Diane Gagnon, a freelance photographer, who has traveled extensively in North America, the Caribbean, Europe and parts of South America. Her photographs have accompanied Troy Herrick’s articles in Live Life Travel, Offbeat Travel and Travels Thru History Magazines.