Trujillo, La Libertad, Peru
Saturday, February 6, 2016
We had heard that this was worth a visit and once again it was just outside of Trujillo. So one Saturday we had popped into the town to run some errands, only to find everything closed and we couldn't get anything done. As Trujillo is already half way to the Temple, we jumped in a taxi and half an hour later we were at yet another archaeological site but this one was on the side of a mountain.
As we approached it looked quite tiny sitting on the hillside as it did and much smaller than the Temple of the Sun which we passed just before arriving at the Temple of the Moon.
Mueum of the Moshe People
There is also a museum dedicated to house the finds from the temple and we had a quick look around that first. The site has only been excavated since 1990 (there seems to have been a sudden flourish of interest in these sites all around the same time). We loved all the pottery exhibited along with the photos of how it was found in situ.
A 10 minute walk across the desert from the museum is the entrance to the Temple of the Moon and having been to the museum first, we understood a little bit more about it now.
Having also been to Chan Chan and the Sipan Temple near Chiclayo, we thought it would be similar.
However, we were really not prepared for what we saw. We could not have been paying much attention in the museum at all.
ancient walls
Firstly it was HUGE! Way bigger than it looked. And older too being built around 100AD. It was estimated it required over 130 million bricks to build it all.
Secondly, the sheer amount of what has been uncovered and preserved was just incredible.
And lastly, WOW! The colours and the original paintings on the plasterwork was amazing. Especially then you consider how long it has been there – nearly 1000 years.
We started off as part of a group but as it was all in Spanish we drifted off to view everything at our own pace. Which also worked for the photos too – not a huge crowd of people in all of them.
how BIG is that wall??
We loved this place – especially the size and scale of the huge painted wall and the colours of the painted walls everywhere. It was very impressive.
We loved too the little market outside. All local people descended from the Moche tribes that lived in the area when the Temple was in use (confirmed by DNA analysis apparently) and still making pottery and products as their ancestors did.
Well worth the visit.
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