Located between callao and Breña, the huaca San Marcos is only a mile north of huaca La Palma situated in Legends Park, in the district of San Miguel, and one mile west of huaca Corpus I. The San Marcos Pyramid belonged to the ancient city of Maranga, which was built during the time of the Lima culture. Together with the huaca Concha and huaca Middendorf, and the San Marcos Pyramid formed the first real ceremonial and administrative complex in the City of Maranga.
The ruins of Maranga proper are today mostly found in the grounds of the University of San Marcos and the Parque de las Leyendas zoo (Legends Park) in San Miguel and Lima Cercado, while the nearby huaca Mateo Salado complex that was once joined by a walled road is found on the edge of Pueblo Libre and Breña.
Luckily, not all of Lima’s pyramids were ruined. When thinking of desert cities with pyramids, Cairo comes to mind, but so should Lima, whose concrete jungle of 10 million has hundreds of Millennia-old pyramids did the trick. These wide-spread huaca ruins that were built by a single people (archaeologists call them the Lima culture) are well-preserved sites dotting the city of Lima. In fact, Lima’s zoo in Legend’s Park is home to the city’s highest concentration of ruins.
Only a few have been explored, revealing pottery, musical instruments and food, which are exhibited in the onsite museum. According to the Park, the land at the zoo was part of the ancient Maranga Complex, along with the San Marcos University and the Catholic University, as well as other urban areas, encompassing more than 60 preserved sites.
The National University of San Marcos (Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos), is the most important and respected higher-education institution in Peru. Its main campus is located in Lima, and was first chartered on May 12, 1551 by a royal decree signed by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, which makes it the oldest officially established university in the Americas. As such, it is one of the oldest universities in the world. Academically, the University ranks alternatively as first or second in Peru, and today has a student body of over 30,000 undergraduate and 4,000 graduate students from all the country as well as some international students.
While the Lima culture built their city of Maranga in the Bookseller tradition not far from the sea in a fertile inland area that was made fertile by a huge channel that brought water from the Rimac River—one of many that covered the entire area of modern day Lima—consisting of engineering works so huge they almost defy belief but have been completely forgotten beneath the city (but not lost). Maranga consisted of 14 huge pyramids surrounded by at least 50 smaller buildings, spread out over an area of 1,085 square miles, making it one of Peru’s largest ancient sites. Some of these
Beyond the downtown city, the entire region is full of intact pyramids, many almost-secret sites hidden among Lima’s university campuses, residential areas and even a zoo.
In the heart of Pre-Columbian Lima, at the time of the arrival of the Spanish, a vast city was found south of the Rimac River between modern day Lima and Callao. Certainly the administrative center of power in northern part of the Inca province of Ischma, with Pachacamac (Pachakamaq) an important center of the south, this city was built long before by the native “Lima Culture” who lived here. Today most of this important complex has been destroyed through the efforts of the Peruvian Government, the University of San Marcos and the Peruvian people in the earlier part of the last century—a time when Peruvians couldn’t care less about their ancient past. Remaining though, and some now finally being restored, are several large huacas, pyramidal mounds, that bare testament to Lima’s long history.
Reminiscence of 4 Nephi 1:8-9, therefore “they did build cities again,” the Lima began building their city and main admnistrative center around 200 AD. It was during this time that the main pyramids of huaca San Marcos, huaca Concha, huaca Middendorf and huaca Potosi Alto were constructed.
When the Spanish arrived in 1553, ending the Inca empire, they founded their capital Los Reyes on the banks of the Rimac river, building on top of the Lima culture constructions that were there, and purposefully destroying those immediately surrounding in Barrios Altos. The Lima people were forced into “Pueblos Indios,” (Indian Towns), where they were forced to become Catholic, wear European style clothes and forget their own culture. The city of Maranga, laying well outside the Spanish city walls, with San Miguel, one of 53 archaeological monuments found in this area, including monument, administrative buildings, temples, palaces, walls, and roads, and formerly known as the Curacazgo de Maranga, was abandoned.
Today, the ruins of Maranga proper are mostly found on the grounds of the University of San Marcos and Legend’s Park zoo in San Miguel and Lima Cercado, while the nearby huaca Mateo Salado complex that was once joined by a walled road is found on the edge of Pueblo Libre and Breña. The biggest loss took place in 1941 when the huaca Concha was obliterated so that its base could be used for the foundations of a new football stadium. The 3-stepped pyramid was 85 feet high when the Peruvian Government began building the national stadium. Soon after, work stopped. The Government had changed its mind and built the new stadium at the old location.
The "huaca San Marcos" was built during the time of the Lima Culture. Together with the "huaca Concha" and "huaca Middendorf" it formed the first real ceremonial and administrative complex in the City of Maranga. Today it is in the compound of the University of San Marcos and covers an area of over 62 square miles.
In the 1960s it moved to its present location halfway between Lima and Callao. This area was suburban, mostly consisting of small residential areas and fields around the pyramids of the city of Maranga. In the 60s and for some time afterwards, many Peruvians considered archaeological sites worthless. San Marcos did a lot of damage, even destroying one pyramid to build a stadium.
The Municipality of Lima in the past months have been extending the Avenida Venezuela and in doing so had to remove the outer wall of the university and use a couple of meters of its land, then the archaeological zone was handed over to the University of San Marcos, who used it to construct new buildings, destroying the smaller ancient remains around the pyramids. The University decided to continue the construction of the stadium, but once finished found it could never be used—it seems adobe bricks don’t make a good foundation. In 1992 the remaining parts of the huaca Concha were destroyed when the stadium was readied for use, however it was abandoned again after spending millions of dollars to conduct some work there.
As a result, the other huacas lay heavily damaged, but the buildings that surrounded them for miles, and many huacas across modern Lima, no longer exist. Surviving away from immediate Maranga are the huaca Mateo Saladohuaca, huaca Huallamarca and some lesser known such as huaca San Borja. Here and there a few walls of old buildings survive, sitting uncared for in residential streets and covered in graffiti.
The older pyramids of Maranga (the only parts of the city remaining—other pyramids in residential areas that covered miles have long since been built over. The most important structures are walled-off and protected, but others are left uncared for, covered in graffiti and garbage.
The point is, though there are hundreds of pyramids in various stages of renovation that currently exist in the Greater Lima Area, hundreds more have been ruined and disappeared beneath the building of the modern capital. Thus Lima fits the bill of an ancient capital as it expanded to provide housing, public buildings and other structures for an expanding population.
No comments:
Post a Comment