Some of Peru's oldest ruins are right in the middle of Lima. Experts say that ancient Lima was once covered by huacas, but urban sprawl has wiped out many, though you can still find them in nearly every neighborhood today. The government has identified more than 400 and over 300 are marked as landmark with some being better preserved and restored than others.
While Lima may be described as an ancient city, most huacas are surrounded by buildings of modern times, except those that are somewhat outside the towns. However, few visitors to Lima know that it was once a city boasting at least 50 to 100 pyramid-like structures with about 50 now excavated or partially excavated, each made up of millions of clay adobe bricks. As an example, the huaca Pucllana (pronounced walk-a pook-yan-a), is snuggled between white high-rise apartment buildings, with its towering mounds of camel-colored clay setting them apart, many in residential locations. Many are more than three times as old as Machu Picchu. Pucllana is one such huaca, or “sacred places.”
This huaca is in the middle of Miraflores, an upscale residential area in the central section of Lima, within the center of tall multi-story apartment buildings in what looks like any other neighborhood in Lima. Pucllana is the largest huaca in Lima and the most often visited by tourists. Anciently, it was one of the most important ancient monuments in all of Lima.
The original construction of most sites throughout the Lima area is of mudbricks that were stacked vertically then with a horizontal course, then vertically, with “adobitos” (small adobe bricks)
alignment in what is called a “bookseller” style because they look like books ordered on shelves, stacked and ready for sale in a book store.
This construction technique allowed their pyramids and temples to resist the constant earthquakes that plague the coastal regions of the Andes. In this method, clay bricks were placed side by side always leaving a space between them, which gave a certain "flexibility" for the bricks during earthquakes. Because they are so bonded, the bricks found spaces between them and could move as the waves of the earthquake rolled past without destroying any part of the wall.
The ancient Pucllana pyramid was built with seven staggered levels, and made of thousands and thousands of these perfectly aligned adobe bricks that continued over a large area, with a coating then applied, similar to cement, then plastered over and painted, sometimes frescoed with images.
In the period of the Regional Developments the Lima culture rose to power, which was distributed on the central coast in the contiguous valleys of Chancay, Chillón, Rímac and Lurín. The construction of the sanctuary began in this period, with Pachacamac being the most important center of the Lurín Valley. At that time, both the Old Temple, an imposing mass made with adobitos forming panels with the “bookseller” technique, and the “Adobitos” bricks were built, including Pucllana, which was only recently unearthed. In fact, they are still excavating the site and don’t plan to have the entire excavation finished for at least another 20 years.
On the southern end of the greater Lima area is the ancient site of Pachacamac, a name meaning “Creator of the Earth,” or “Creator of All Things,” in which the initial building was with the use of large foundation stones, with mudbrick on top in a pyramid building period built entirely on perfectly aligned "adobitos" bricks like Pucllana.
The huaca in central Lima was considered by archaeologists to have been an Administrative and Ceremonial Center of the Lima Culture, as they claim Pachacamac was also.
While 300 identified sites are still available in Lima, there were more destroyed as the population expanded after the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century. In addition, in this period were the huacas of San Marcos, Concha, Middendorf, and Potosi. There is also the huaca Huallamarca in San Isidro, which has also undergone restoration and is open to visitors. In other neighborhoods, however, like the downtown center of Breña, you might simply spot one, marked with graffiti and wrapped by a chain-link fence.
Today Pucllana is a towering 82-foot tall principal pyramid surrounded by ramps, patios, and a lower main plaza. However, archeologists believe that the pyramid used to be much larger. Unfortunately, during the last century, modern residents have built over parts of these ancient Lima ruins.
The structure is surrounded by a plaza, or central square, that borders the outer limits, and by a large structured wall dividing it into two separate sections.
In one section there were benches and deep pits where offerings of fish and other marine life took place in order to attain the favor of diety. The other section is an administrative area. This area contains various small clay structures and huts made of adobe–with some walls still standing–whose function seemed to be to act as the courtyards and patios of the enclosure which is over 1640 feet in length, 9 feet width and 6 feet in height.
Of particular note are the remains of the “Señor de los Unkus” (The Lord of the Unkus), and was the first tomb within the ceremonial center to have been discovered completely intact. This tomb holds three separate burial shrouds containing the remains of three adults–two of which have masks–and those of a child.
In different areas of the city of Lima they have currently found 54 partially intact huacas, some thousands of years old, and all pre-Inca. The exact definition of a huaca, also spelled w’aka, is literally translated as “sacredness,” the much later Incas used the word to refer to these ancient pyramids, which they did not build, that were made of clay bricks. Many can be spotted throughout Lima, elsewhere on Peru's coast, and even across the neighboring countries of Chile and Ecuador.
The Lima culture and their contemporaries were notable for their mastery of irrigation, which allowed them to develop settlements across considerable territory. Surrounded by a desert climate, the Lima and other early Peruvian cultures created sprawling networks to carry much-needed water from springs and rivers to the towns.
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