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<< Our Photo Pages >> Chan Chan - Ancient Village or Settlement in Peru

Submitted by bat400 on Monday, 24 November 2014  Page Views: 10189

Multi-periodSite Name: Chan Chan Alternative Name: Jang Jang, Sun Sun
Country: Peru Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Trujillo
Latitude: 8.108489S  Longitude: 79.075195W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
no data Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
4 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
4

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DrewParsons would like to visit

bat400 saw from a distance on 6th Sep 2018 - their rating: Cond: 2

ModernExplorers visited on 15th Oct 2003 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 4 Some interesting structures but more interesting was the artwork and the geometric patterns

SolarMegalith visited on 1st Jul 2003 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 5



Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 2.67 Ambience: 4 Access: 4.5

Chan Chan
Chan Chan submitted by SolarMegalith : However large part of Chimu capital is in very poor condition now, the area of Tschudi Palace with ornaments made in clay is restored (photo taken on July 2003). (Vote or comment on this photo)
Chan Chan was the capital city of the Kingdom of Chimu. The city was built and occupied from ~800 AD to 1470 AD. At its peak it covered 20 square km with population estimates that vary from 30,000 to 100,000.

Built on the dry plain of Peru's northern coast, the city was fed by fields irrigated by streams coming down from the Andes and by a fishing fleet of boats built from balsa and reeds.

The Chimor culture pre-dated and then coincided with the Inca. They were conquered and brought into the Inca Empire in the mid 1400's. The city is built almost entirely from mud adobe brick coated by a mud covering. Realistic and abstract designs were carved into the walls of homes, storerooms, and palaces.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Note: Sacrifices of children and llamas uncovered in Peru, see the latest comment on our page
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Chan Chan
Chan Chan submitted by SolarMegalith : Ruins of Chan Chan, capital of Chimu empire. Reconstructed Tschudi Palace is one of the youngest parts of the city (photo taken on July 2003). (Vote or comment on this photo)

Chan Chan
Chan Chan submitted by SolarMegalith : Beautiful clay ornaments of Tschudi Palace - buildings are constructed of adobe bricks. The final downfall of the town was in 15th century, when Inca empire conquered Chimu (photo taken on July 2003). (Vote or comment on this photo)

Chan Chan
Chan Chan submitted by PeterR87 : Chan Chan, Trujillo, Peru. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Chan Chan
Chan Chan submitted by PeterR87 (Vote or comment on this photo)

Chan Chan
Chan Chan submitted by PeterR87

Chan Chan
Chan Chan submitted by PeterR87

Chan Chan
Chan Chan submitted by PeterR87

Chan Chan
Chan Chan submitted by durhamnature : Walls, from "Ancient America" via archive.org Site in Peru

Chan Chan
Chan Chan submitted by durhamnature : Detail of decoration, from "Ancient America" via archive.org

Chan Chan
Chan Chan submitted by durhamnature : Old photo from "Across the Andes and Down the Amazon" via archive.org Site in Peru

Chan Chan
Chan Chan submitted by durhamnature : Pottery decoration, from "South American Archaeology" via archive.org Site in Peru

Chan Chan
Chan Chan submitted by durhamnature : Old photo, from "South American Archaeology" via archive.org Site in Peru

Chan Chan
Chan Chan submitted by ModernExplorers : Site in Peru.

Chan Chan
Chan Chan submitted by ModernExplorers : Carvings on the walls outside.

Chan Chan
Chan Chan submitted by PeterR87 : Chan Chan, Trujillo, Peru.

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 3.3km WNW 282° Huanchaquito-Las Llamas Misc. Earthwork
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"Chan Chan" | Login/Create an Account | 6 News and Comments
  
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Children found sacrificed in pre-Incan ritual by davidmorgan on Sunday, 25 September 2011
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Peruvian archaeologists have uncovered the remains of 12 children and 20 llamas sacrificed some 800 years ago by the pre-Incan Chimu civilization.

The bodies were discovered in good condition during excavations in the northern coast of the country at Huanchaquito, some 500km from the capital Lima.

The bodies were found near the ancient city of Chan Chan, a government and religious centre of the Chimus.

Experts believe the children and animals were killed in a ritual similar to the Incan ceremony known as Capacocha, which was organized before the imminent death or birth of an Incan emperor.

Archaeologists also suspect the sacrifice could have been done to settle down nature's forces because the remains were found amid clay, suggesting they were buried during a rainy season.

Head of the excavations, Gabriel Prieto, said it was unlikely for the site to have been a cemetery.

"All these bodies seem to be from the Chimu period, that is, they are associated with Chan Chan and they lived in a time ranging from 1,200 to 1,400 years after Christ," he explained.

"And, more than a cemetery, this seems to be an offering - a ritual that these people celebrated probably to honour the sea due to rains. It is also possible that his could have been a Capacocha ritual, which was very common in the Incan time. When an Incan governor lived, was born or died. Great sacrifices were made to honour these events."

The remains were found tied with ropes and there were no burial offerings around.

Prieto said the animals were strategically buried in relation to the bodies, reinforcing the hypothesis that they were laid to rest during a sacrifice ceremony.

Chan Chan was built by the Chimu civilization around 850 AD and is considered a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Peru is a country rich in archaeological treasures. It has hundreds of sites that date back thousands of years and span dozens of cultures, including the Incan empire that was in power when Spanish explorers arrived in the early 1500s.

http://www.3news.co.nz/Archaeology-Children-found-sacrificed-in-pre-Incan-ritual/tabid/1160/articleID/222764/Default.aspx#ixzz1YUWndeFs

Submitted by coldrum.
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    Re: Children found sacrificed in pre-Incan ritual by bat400 on Monday, 24 November 2014
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    Similar story, sent by coldrum:

    Physical anthropologist John Verano has seen plenty while working in Peru over the last 30 years. What he came across this summer in the village of Huanchaquito, however, is "not what we've seen before, especially on the coast," he says.

    Locals noticed bones poking out of a sandy ridge in 2011, and Peruvian archaeologist Gabriel Prieto went to investigate. He was greeted with a shock: the remains of 42 children and 76 llamas sacrificed some 600 years ago in a ritual by the Chimú, who controlled part of coastal Peru from around 1100 until they were overthrown by the Inca in 1470, Phys.org reports.

    Verano and Prieto's expansion of the dig this summer added to the "exciting discovery" as even more remains were found. "It's not a place where you'd think to look," Tulane University's Verano says of the site, about 100 yards from a beach.

    He notes erosion and construction nearby helped reveal the forgotten remains. While Verano has come across the bodies of adults captured and killed in Peru, children are a rarity, he says.
    He explains the children may have been killed as a gift to the sea. (As Prieto explained to National Geographic in 2011, "In the north coast of Peru, the ocean is very closely tied to agriculture because the temperature of the water can determine whether there will be rain or not.") As for the llamas, the Chimú may have believed they would transport the children to the afterlife.

    The discovered bones and teeth are now being analyzed.

    See: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014
    [ Reply to This ]

Chan Chan, the Melting City of the Chimu by coldrum on Wednesday, 17 June 2009
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Chan Chan, the Melting City of the Chimu

On a recent trip to Trujillo I had the opportunity to visit the ancient city of Chan Chan, the capital city of the Chimu Civilization. Taking the taxi into Trujillo from the airport the road passes through what looks to be about the center of this vast city made of mud bricks. You are immediately struck by two things, one is the immense size of the place and the other is the vast destruction done by looters, earthquakes and the weather. UNESCO has declared this a world heritage site and work is being done to preserve as much as possible but as we all know there is only so much money to go around to all the sites in the world that need help. I had heard from friends and read that this site was a must visit for anyone coming to Peru and they were certainly correct.

Taking one of the tours offered by operators located in the center of Trujillo, our destination inside Chan Chan was the Tschudi Complex or “The Palace.” Once inside the complex we were taken through a maze of corridors that opened onto huge plazas (audiencias), storage rooms and residential areas for the Noble Family who occupied this compound. The compound was huge, easily able to hold seven football fields with room left over. There are intricate carvings on the walls and a small lake (called a well) inside the complex that is fed by the water table. This small lake reminded me of the one in the Temple at Luxor in Egypt. It was there for religious and purification purposes and sacrifices (not the human kind) were tossed into the lake also. Some of the carvings on the walls inside the compound represent “La Nina” and “El Nino,” the two major forces of the Pacific that affect the weather here and obviously their lives. Other carvings represent fertility and some are of the god figures. At the center of the compound was the burial site of the Head of this Noble family. It is thought that he served as one of the Kings before his death and afterwards another King was appointed to replace him. He was buried much as the Egyptians were, with all the goods thought necessary in the afterlife which included the sacrifice of young women to please the Gods and secure their favor in his afterlife. The palace and grounds were then maintained as a mausoleum by priest types who perpetuated the God image of the King after his death.


All of the areas in this compound that contained original intricate carvings and decorative brick work were protected by awnings placed over steel structures. Those walls that had not been reconstructed were capped with a concrete like material to prevent further erosion from the rains. The archaeologists and their teams are doing the best they can with the limited resources at their disposal. For now only these major structures seem to have any protection at all. So much more needs to be done.

The tour of just this one palace took almost two hours so you can imagine the size of the place. There are eleven of these compounds inside the city’s walls. The city covers an area of 7.7 square miles and the walls surrounding it were 26 feet high. It is estimated that over 50,000 people lived in Chan Chan at the height of the Chimu Civilization. It is the largest city made of mud bricks in the world. It is also thought that over 25% of the population were artisans who worked with raw materials brought into the city from all over the coast. These were made into beautiful objects and then sent back into those regions for trade.

I believe the greatest threat to this magnificent archaeological site now is the changing weather patterns in Peru. Scientists believe that due to global warming the “El Nino’s” are getting worse and the amount of rainfall to this area has increased significantly. There is nothing in place to protect a major portion of the city form these rains. As we know, rain will only turn the bricks made of dried mud back into mud which then washes off the walls of the houses, barrios and great palaces l

Read the rest of this post...
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Heavy Rain Damages Largest Mud City by bat400 on Sunday, 31 December 2006
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Heavy rains damaged several adobe walls in the ancient ruins of Chan Chan, the world's largest mud city on Peru's northern coast, the newspaper El Comercio reported Saturday.
An unusual downpour Friday morning saturated the top seven inches of the walls in a southern portion of the ruins and penetrated the sides, Cristobal Campana, the director of the archaeological site, told the newspaper.
With more rains expected in the usually arid coastal desert zone, workers were covering the walls with plastic tarps at the site near Trujillo, nearly 300 miles northwest of the capital, Lima.

For more see the article:
here
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View Chan Chan from above by bat400 on Wednesday, 22 November 2006
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Like Caral, farther down the coast, Chan Chan is a joy to see in a satellite view. Try the Flash Earth button and once there, make sure you are on Google maps. Now close in and take a look around.

Chan Chan is known for separate city "compunds" each with its own set of temples, "U" shaped chambers (they may be for audiences or presentations), and storerooms. Its been speculated that the city was the capitol of multiple "kings" or perhaps noble trading families.
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Peru Government Declares Emergency for Adobe City. by bat400 on Wednesday, 22 November 2006
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The government of Peru has declared a state of emergency for the next 120 days in an attempt to focus resources on protection of the Pre-Hispanic city of Chan Chan as El Nino seasonal weather approaches.

The massive city (20 square km, 30,000 people in the early 15th C) was made from adobe. Since its excavation it has required continuous upkeep to prevent its errosion. Funding has not always been available. Although it is an UNESCO World Heritage Site it has been on that group's "Danger List" since joining the list.

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